Category: innovation

Warren Buffett’s Bet Against Innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 04

The U.S. is in deeper trouble than I thought, if Warren Buffett is right. In proclaiming an “all-in wager on the economic future of the United States, Buffett just paid…

Tim Brown And Roger Martin Together Talking Design Thinking

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 29

IDEO’s Tim Brown has a new book out—Change by Design—and Rotman School of Management’ Roger Martin has a new book out—The Design of Business. On November 11, I will moderate…

Who is Henrik Fisker? He Just Got a Half Billion Dollar Loan From Washington to Build Plug-Ins

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

Fisker just got a big loan from Washington to buy an old GM plant to assemble plug-in hybrid cars. But who the heck is Fisker? Then I remembered this piece…

21 Young Design Thinkers Making A Difference

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

Check out these people—their schools, degrees and employers. This is the heart of design these days. Hey Venessa, you are doing an incredible job covering Design!…

Design in Korea and the Science of Designomics

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

I’m going to be giving a keynote speech at the big Design Korea conference in early December on “Designomics.” I hadn’t heard the term before but I like it a…

Building A Design Culture in China—Tim Marshall, Provost of The New School

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

Check out this great Business Week podcast on China’s exploding design scene by New School Provost Tim Marshall, previously dean of Parsons School of Design. Tim talks about the hot…

Are Smart Grids Really Stupid?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

There’s a wonderful story on windpower and smart grids by John Carey just out as the Obama Administration begins to finance the creation of a smart grid system in the…

Crowdsourcing, Social Business Models, Innovation—Bruce Nussbaum Talks With David Armano

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

Here’s an insightful conversation on innovation, design and social media between David and me, thanks mostly to the great questions Armano asks. I’m following the new Dachis Group since it…

Best Article On China in Years

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 24

Check out this balanced, insightful and cautious piece on China’s economy in Bizweek. It’s hard to get through the hype on China these days and this piece does just that….

Inside The App Economy at Apple, Facebook and Zynga.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 24

Read this great story on the growing app economy at Apple, Facebook and Zynga. A new economy based on a new platform. Do you know who Eddie Cue is? This…

Who Needs Conde Nast? Gen Y Builds It’s Own Fashion Platforms

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 24

I’m working with Parson’s grad Kelsey Meuse to build out a Gen Y Research Collaborative and she pointed me to Lookbook.nu. It’s a simple digg-type platform where Gen Yers around…

Bill Buxton—The Man Who Invented Touch Screen Touch

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 23

I went out drinking with Bill Buxton in Providence, RI, at the recent BIF5 conference and we talked about how he was building three canoes based on three Canadian Native…

GE HealthCare Conference—Insights and Lessons

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 23

GE’s extraordinary CMO Beth Comstsock and GE HealthCare’s design guru Bob Schwartz put on Health By Design, a really important little conference on Thursday. I was lucky to be part…

Designer Richard Sapper’s Story On The Original ThinkPad

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 21

I talked with Richard Sapper, the amazing design genius, at Knoll on Tuesday. He’s developed a beautiful arm that holds monitors in the air above your desk. You can fold…

Apple and Amazon Do Platform Innovation—And Succeed in a Recession

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 21

Amazon just announced that people are reading more and more books on the Kindle days after Appple announced that people are downloading more and more applications on the iPhone. And…

China Design Now Show in Portland: From Imitation to Innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 17

The Portland Art Museum has a great China Design Now exhibition going that I plan to see. The exhibition shows that China has three centers of design—Shanghai for fashion and…

Warm Ice Cream—Nestle Designs Large Scale Social Systems

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 16

I was a co-host at BIF5 last week (Business Innovation Factory) and had a wonderfully insightful public conversation with Helmut Traitler, the Vice President of Innovation Partnerships for Nestlé who…

Sorry, Back From Dark. Life in Beta

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 14

Sorry for being silent for three weeks. Living life in beta, with business models melting down and careers morphing, is common to all of us these days. Me included. We…

The World’s Best Design Thinking Programs

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 01

Looking for innovative thinkers? Check out the 2009 list of the Best Design Programs in the World by Business Week. It has both business-based and design-based programs that integrate the…

Living Climate Change From IDEO

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 29

Check this very cool site called Living Climate Change that just went live. People posting on their frames for climate change. Come to Parsons School of Design Wednesday night at…

New York City Is Bad At Building An Innovation Economy—Listen Up Mayor Bloomberg

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

A new study out by the Center for An Urban Future shows that New York City has great research centers but is terrible turning scientific advances into start-up businesses and…

Book Excerpt from Change By Design by IDEO’s Tim Brown

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 27

Here’s a wonderful piece on how design can improve health care from Tim Brown’s new book, Change By Design. To those who argue that Design has no business influencing health,…

A Rant Against Twitter by Tyler Brule

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 27

I like Tyler Brule and find his views of global elite culture and travels entertaining. I like his new magazine Monocle. I used to like his old magazine Wallpaper. But…

President Obama’s Innovation Initiative is a Hodge-Podge That Doesn’t Add Up

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 27

I invite everyone to read President Obama’s new Innovation Strategy document and see for yourself if it adds up. To me, it is a list of priorities, important priorities to…

Come Talk to IDEO’s Tim Brown in New York Wednesday

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 27

A great open conversation with IDEO’s Tim Brown will take place at Parsons School of Design in New York on Wednesday night and everyone in town is invited to come…

Are There Jobs in Journalism?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 22

I’m about to give a speech at SVA (School of Visual Arts) in NYC in its great Design Crit grad program. I know a lot of the students will ask…

Paul Polak At New School Monday Night.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 20

Jessie Scanlon recently wrote a great piece about social entrepreneur Paul Polak, who is appearing at New School this Monday night. Check it out….

Social Entreprenurship at New School—Monday Night Panel

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 18

A new program in social entrepreneurship is beginning at the New School in New York and there is a kick off on Monday night. There are lots of them at…

The Sale of BusinessWeek—What Went Wrong?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 17

Everyone is asking me what went wrong at BusinessWeek to the point where, after 80 years, McGraw-Hill is trying to sell it. My answer, expressed in my latest installment…

What Does the Health Care Landscape Really Look Like? Ask Larry Keeley at Doblin

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 13

Two years ago, when I was editor of IN: Inside Innovation, at BusinessWeek, I worked with Larry Keeley of the Doblin Group to create a vast, visual image of the…

Fashion Week in New York and Fashion’s Role in Innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 13

It finally stopped raining in NYC and Fashion Week is booming along with run-way shows and parties. But the most important thing about this year’s Fashion Week is not the…

How a Professional Designer Would Redesign The Health Care System

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 10

As anyone who followed President Obama’s speech on Wednesday knows, health care reform is as much about emotions as the delivery of care. Those emotions have been politicized and manipulated,…

How The Federal Reserve Distorts The Economics Profession—And Why We Suffer.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 09

There is an amazing piece of investigative and analytical journalism on the HuffPost showing how the Federal Reserve and its market-is-always-right kind of economic theory has shaped the entire economics…

Paul Krugman Explains Why Economics is Bankrupt as a Profession—And an Explanation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 08

The most important thing written over the weekend was not about health care but about the dismal profession of economics by Paul Krugman. It’s important for innovators, designers and just…

Why The New York Times Does Not Get Design Thinking

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 31

My favorite design critic, Alice Rawsthorn, has a great piece on the INDEX awards in the weekend New York Times. Alice shows why INDEX is giving awards to non-profits like…

Design For Corruption—Why US Healthcare is Failing

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 28

I’ve lived all over the world, in countries that Americans often call “corrupt.” Peace Corps in The Philippines, journalism in Thailand, Argentina, China. But these days, the US is at…

Check Out Design Thinking at TED Global

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 08

IDEO’s Tim Brown was at TED Global in London and talks about DT—Design Thinking at the conference. Funny. IDEO co-founder David Kelley was in NYC last week and talked about…

Are We Seeing A V-Shaped Economic Recovery? And What Will A GenY Economy Look Like?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 07

This Great Recession has fooled everyone, especially economists, in its shape, severity and longevity. The unexpected drop in the US unemployment rate to 9.4% from 9.5% leads me to wonder…

The Really Rich Got Stinking Rich in the Last Decade—Bring Back Max Weber

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 05

I found a copy of Max Weber’s Protestant Ethic And The Spirit of Capitalism in the East Hampton dump this weekend and took it to be a sign of…

CEO Conversation Is Changing—From Cost Cutting To Top-Line Growth

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 04

I recently did a swing through a number of major innovation consultancies and the buzz this summer is that top-line growth is again a topic of conversation inside US and…

The Smartest Minds in Innovation Will Be at BIF-5 in October

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 03

Saul Kaplan is putting on yet another amazing Business Innovation Factory gathering in Providence, RI in early October. I’ll be hosting along with Bill Taylor—which means talking with a cast…

Samsung Beats Apple in the IDEA/BusinessWeek Design Awards

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 01

Wow. Samsung beat out Apple 8 to 7 in this years annual Industrial Design Excellence Awards sponsored by Business Week. This is a remarkable achievement for the Korean company. I…

ZIBA Design’s New Headquarters Captures The True 21st Century Zeitgeist

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

I was given a personal tour of ZIBA Design’s new headquarters in Portland’s Pearl District recently and it just took my breath away. The intense engagement of ZIBA founder Sohrab…

Latest Trends in Design and Innovation—And Why The Debate Over Design Thinking is Moot

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

Sorry for the silence but I’ve been in the field observing the practice of Design with a capital “D.” I just returned from observing ZIBA Design’s amazing new headquarters in…

China’s Design Crisis

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 22

I’ve been talking to European and US innovation and design consultancies working in Shanghai and the rest of China and most are hiring Western and Korean designers because Chinese…

Caterpillar Has A New Hybrid Tractor

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 22

Jessie Scanlon has a great piece on a new diesel/electric hybrid tractor out by Caterpillar. It’s innovation in a recession. Caterpillar brought in customers early to learn what they wanted…

The New York Times Begins To Outsource Stories

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 19

The New York Times is just beginning to opt for a new journalism model that outsources stories from its own newspaper silo that I began to experiment with, successfully, six…

Amazon Blows It With Kindle

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 19

Reaching into people’s electronic bookshelves to take back books is a monstrous violation of reader culture. Amazon just reached deep into thousands of people’s Kindles to remove “1984” and made…

Smart Insight: Design Was Born In The Great Depression. Will It Be Reborn Out Of The Great Recession?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 16

Check out this terrific graphic from the folks at Smart Design, tracking Design and the economy over time. Design was born as Design Strategy to help guide CEOs in an…

Roger Martin and Tim Brown on Design Thinking

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 15

Lots of good talk about DT—Design Thinking. Good preparation for two books coming out in the fall by Rotman School of Management’s Roger Martin and IDEO’s Tim Brown on Design…

Design Thinking Battle—Managers Embrace Design Thinking, Designers Reject It.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 10

Fred Collopy has a great blog item up at Fast Company on why he dislikes the “Thinking” part of the term “Design Thinking.” In essence, Fred argues that the best…

Backlash Against Facebook by Gen Yers?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 08

News that there are more 55 plus boomers on Facebook than high school students shows the dynamism of change within social media. It also shows the clash of cultures. My…

Valet Biking at Bryant Park?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 07

Someone just told me that there was valet parking for bikes at the Bryant Park movie night in NYC on Monday. Valet biking—talk about an oxymoron. Is this true? Biking…

Seth Godin Vs. Malcolm Gladwell on Chris Anderson’s Book, Free

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 01

Well, Seth backs Chris against Malcolm. Or does he really? After playing out the “free” argument, Seth then says: “People will pay for content if it is so unique they…

Jeff Immelt Pushes The “Reset” Button on The US Economy

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 01

General Electric’s CEO Jeff Immelt gave a speech recently in Detroit in which he described a vision of America’s economic future. Get back to making things, invest in technology, reform…

George Soros - Too Much Innovation in Finance Can Hurt

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 30

George Soros, the financial philosopher, supporter of civic culture and crusher of the Bank of England, spoke on Tuesday morning in NYC, warning that Americans are denying the magnitude of…

Gladwell Destroys Anderson’s Free Argument

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 30

Drop everything and read the Malcolm Gladwell review of Chris Anderson’s new book Free. Gladwell challenges Anderson’s key assertions: “Information wants to be free.” Free for whom? Free for Google…

Obama is Failing to Innovate—Failing to Redesign our Financial and Social Systems

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 28

My scorecard for President Obama in his attempts at innovating America’s failing economic, financial and social systems. 1- Redesign the failing financial system — C. Obama put the foxes in…

From Social Media to Social Business Design — A New Business Model

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 22

For a provocative and insightful look into what may be the future of business organization design, check out David Armano’s piece on the next iteration of social media—social business. This…

Innovation From India’s Tata Group — Innovista

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 21

Jessie Scanlon has a great story on Tata’s Innovation Contest, Innovista. The contest involved answering the following brainteaser by three judges at Innovista: What’s more innovative: intelligent software designed to…

Boomers Love The Kindle. Why?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 19

I was on the Jitney today and sat next to a woman from Hawaii who was about 60-something and she had her Kindle. Every time I see a Kindle, it…

President Obama Failed to Redesign the Financial System

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 18

The “overhaul” of the financial regulatory system just proposed by President Obama avoids serious reform of the US banking system which rececently sent the world into the worst recession since…

Twitter’s Role in Iran—Is The Medium Really The Message?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 17

The blogosphere and mainstream media are ablaze with the news that Twitter is playing the key role in enabling the protest against the election fraud in Iran. This is social…

Is Design Too Important To Be Left Only To Designers? Part 11

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 17

I’m reposting a comment by Anne Burdick that links to her speech at Parsons which led me to say raise the issue of whether or not Design was becoming too…

CEOs Hiring 27-Year Old Mentors

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 17

I just talked with a high-powered communications consultant who told me that CEOs are hiring 27-year old “mentors” to help them navigate social media. This is a big development. For…

52 Truths For Winning At Business Without Losing Your Self

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

No. 13: Learn to take “no” as a question. Good one, Allan Webber….

Best Cities for Gen Yers To Survive The Great Recession

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

Check out this great story and slide show of the best cities for new college graduates and Gen Yers to find jobs and/or just survive the current economic crisis. I…

Are Engineers, Scientists And Mathematicians Enemies of Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

I know it sounds preposterous, but it is increasingly clear to me that the professionals who generate invention—engineers, scientists and mathematicians—are often the enemies of innovation. Yes, I realize that…

3G Hell. Here’s a Workaround Tip

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

I was in Florida for four days and couldn’t connect to my Twitter account for most of it. I just assumed it was the same old problem with Twitter technology…

52 Truths for Winning At Business Without Losing Your Self—New Book by Alan Webber

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 10

Alan Webber, co-founder of Fast Company magazine, has a new book out called Rules of Thumb. He has 52 of them. I’m going to start calling what i think are…

Message to A.G. Lafley—My Gillette Mach 3 Turbo Razors Don’t Work Anymore

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 10

Dear AG, I ran into the brillian Brian Collins (he’s doing great work for Al Gore) on the street yesterday and he has a new client who is starting EOS,…

CEO Legacies: A.G. Lafley Vs. Bob Nardelli

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 09

Nothing illustrates why US companies have found it so hard to innovate than the strikingiy different legacies left behind by two giants in the world of CEO-dom, A.G. Lafley, who…

Twitter Hype? Or Social Media Ignorance? Harvard Business School Blows It

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 09

Here is a blockbuster “discovery” from Harvard Business School—just 10% of Twitter users generate 90% of the content. Most everyone else is there passively for the ride. Sorry, HBS, but…

A.G. Lafley To Leave P&G. President Obama, Please Make Lafley Chief Innovation Officer

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 08

A giant in innovation is stepping down—A.G. Lafley is stepping down as CEO at Procter & Gamble. No other CEO outside of the tech industry has done as much as…

The Value of a Harvard or Wharton MBA Will Slide to Zero. A New Masters of Business Design Should Replace it

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 08

The Financial Times has it’s 2009 listing of top global B-Schools and there is lots of talk about how the Great Recession has tarnished all B-Schools and their major product,…

Is Innovating Failing In The US?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 04

My colleague and chief economist of Business Week, Mike Mandel, has a provocative piece out saying that the promise of innovation in the US has not been met over the…

Leonardo Da Vinci Made Money As A Defense Contractor And Other Quotes From the Institute of Design Innovate Now! Conference

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 25

Just finished the great innovation summit conference at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. Patrick Whitney did it again, with a day full of insights and provocations at one…

Great Data Visualization of Swine Flu From The New York Times

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 18

It’s weird to keep reading about the decline of The New York Times and its possible sale when the Times online is such a pioneer of online news. Check out…

How Much Is Your “Stream” Worth On Twitter Or Facebook?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

We’re hearing a lot about streams these days and its not about trout. It’s about our individual streams of connection via Twitter, Facebook and other forms of social media and…

Bad Time To Graduate For Creatives— Let’s Change That

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

Students graduating in the “creative” industries are terrified about job prospects and the official government figures support that fear. Mike Mandel breaks out the bad-news numbers and they are awful….

Is Human Fat The Ultimate Bio-Diesel Fuel?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 13

One of my most popular posts is on the Earthrace bio-boat fueled by human fat. I want to return to that conversation because it is important—even if it is yucky….

May is Student Design and Innovation Month—Enormous Growth Potential

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 10

If you are in the corporate, venture capital or economic policy-making business, May is a special month for you. Students at design/innovation schools present their work publicly to their professors,…

Chrysler, Culture and Cerberus

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 01

There is a deep divide between my good friend Steve Baker, the author of The Numerati, a remarkable book, and myself over which is more important in business—numbers or culture….

Is Design Too Important To Be Left Only To Designers?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 30

There is huge anxiety among designers and design educators at the encroachment of business, education, health, energy, transportation and other fields into Design. The evolution of Design from an individual…

How Do You Innovate In A Recession? Look to the iPhone, Flip, Kindle and ZipCar for Answers

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 23

Warren Buffet’s now-famous metaphor about corporate culture— you never know who’s wearing a swimsuit and who’s really naked until the tide goes out—is never more evident than today. Even as…

Susan Boyle is Captivating Because She Is Common—In The Best Sense

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 22

In case you are one of the few people left on the planet who hasn’t seen the YouTube video of the remarkable singing of Britain’s Susan Boyle, check it out….

The New Normal: De-Globalize, Re-Localize

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 20

Everyone is struggling to define what the New Normal will be once we get out of the current Great Recession. I’d like to start a conversation about what the elements…

President Obama—Technology + Efficiency Don’t = Innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 19

On President Obama’s blog, there’s a video of him talking about Efficiency and Innovation. Trouble is, there is little in the speech or the appointments of a new Chief Performance…

Innovation Depression Strikes

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 14

I’m getting innovation depression. The new list of 25 Most Innovative Companies by BusinessWeek and BCG is out and spending on innovation is down. Despite all the evidence showing that…

Easter Sunday Thoughts on Designing Sustainable, Non-Material Signals of Cool

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 12

Out birding on a beautiful Easter Sunday, I got to ruminating as I was hunting (just hunting, not the killing), how we can design systems of prestige that don’t involve…

What Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz Said At Parsons

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 08

We had “crashers” at the Design-At-The-Edge class on Monday, including the hugely talented Allan Chochinov from Core77. Over 100 folks turned out to see and hear Jacqueline Novogratz discuss her…

Acumen Fund’s Jacqueline Novogratz Speaks At Parsons Monday Night

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 05

The founder of the non-profit venture capital Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz, is coming to present at my Design-At-The-Edge series at Parsons School of Design in NYY Monday night at 6PM….

Another Letter to Steve Rattner, Car Czar: Combine GM and Chrysler

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 01

Dear Steve, Back in June, ‘08, I predicted that Chrysler would fail and its key brands would be picked up by General Motors. It turns out that GM is failing…

My New Favorite Concept is—Attunement

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 01

Attunement is post-empathy, post-ethnography. As in being aware and responsive to those around you, i.e. consumers, patients, students, voters, etc. As in perceiving their “unmet,” inarticulated needs. I heard it…

My New Favorite Magazine is—-Seed.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 01

Seed all about science and science policy and it even has a column on design by MOMA’s top curator and my friend, Paola Antonelli. Check out Paola’s column on Design…

Letter To Steve Rattner on Ousting GM’s CEO Richard Wagoner—Look to India’s Nano Car For Paradigm Change

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 30

I’ve know Steve Rattner for decades, from his early days at The New York Times through his years as an investment banker specializing in media mergers, his participation in the…

We Are All French Now

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 29

OK, we Americans need to face it. The French were right. We were wrong. Yes, this is a provocation but there’s a lot of truth to it. Let’s go down…

G20 in London—Redesigning The Neoliberal Capitalist Model. ZipCar’s Robin Chase Has Another Framework

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 29

The buzz in global policy circles is all about “Redesigning The System” and the upcoming Tuesday meeting in London will start with redesigning the global financial system. Clearly, we need…

Julia Allison Proves She’s Serious at Parsons.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 26

Here are facts about Julia Allison that you may not know. They come from her presentation to Parsons Design School students in my Design At The Edge class Monday night….

Remembering Ron Silver.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 16

I went to Junior High School 71 on Avenue B and 7th Street on the Lower East Side of New York with Ron Silver and his death is a shocker….

Julia Allison To Present At Parsons on March 23.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 15

I’ve invited the very famous Julia Allison to present to my class on Design At The Edge next Monday, March 23, at 6PM. She’s at the SXSW conference right now—http://twitter.com/juliaallison….

Following SXSW: South by Southwest Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 15

If you’re not there at this increasingly important conference, plug into the tweeting of Clay Shirky who is there. http://twitter.com/cshirky. There’s good discussion about the sociology of social media on…

The U.S. Is A Failure At Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 11

Got your attention? Good, because the statement is mostly TRUE. Mike Mandel, the chief economist at Business Week, presented a paper recently to the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council on “Innovation…

The Dogs of Dogma Are Barking.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 11

I had a great Design At The Edge class at Parsons School of Design on innovation with David Armano, VP of Experience Design at Critical Mass, this week and learned…

David Armano Presents At Parsons—The Micro-Sociology of Social Networks.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 09

David Armano, the VP of Experience Design at Critical Mass, is giving a lecture in my Design at the Edge course on Monday night at Parsons School of Design in…

John Kao and Deloitte Launch The Institute for Large Scale Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 02

Look through the terrible economic news and you can just begin to see the winners who will emerge once the bad times end. For companies, countries, NGOS and even individuals,…

Buy This Book—The Blue Sweater by Jacqueline Novogratz.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 25

I’ve known the founder of the Acumen Fund, Jacqueline Novogratz, for many years and she’s one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. If you’re in the social entrepreneur…

President Obama Goes Optimistic.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 25

The speech by President Obama thttp://www.whitehouse.gov/o Congress was “designerly.” How so? It was an authentic, true analysis of what ails the American people (the collective refusal to deal with deep…

Optimism is The New Courage.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 24

The bad news is unremitting—housing prices are plummeting, consumer confidence is dropping, unemployment is soaring, the financial system is breaking down. It appears that the world as we knew it…

Arne Duncan, Here Is Great Classroom Design From Metropolis.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 23

The new Secretary of Education, Chicago’s Arne Duncan, has a few billion bucks from the Stimulus Bill to build and renovate classrooms. These few billions in a bill of nearly…

David Rockwell Does The Oscars.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 23

So, what did you think of the Oscars Sunday night? David Rockwell designed the sets that I thought made the show. The lighting, in particular, was remarkable, both on the…

Facebook Privacy Flap—Gen Yers Demand Control.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 18

The Facebook Flap over privacy shows that the Gen Y cohort may be just as worried about controlling their own data as their Boomer parents. For a while there, it…

What is Not in The Stimulus Package? Lots of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 18

President Obama signed the Stimulus Bill and it’s pretty much the size he wanted—about $800 billion. But it is not the design he wanted. Yes, it does have money for…

President Obama—Forgive Student Debt.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 11

In all the discussions under way to stimulate the economy now and prepare for new kinds of growth for the future, no one is talking about one obvious option—forgive the…

Kindle 2 is Here. eBooks Are Hot.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 09

What do people buy in a severe recession that feels like a depression? Well, they buy iPhones (not as many but still lots). They buy Wii. And they buy Kindles….

Boomers Vs. Gen Yers—What I’m Learning From Students At Parsons.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 09

I’m learning a lot from my students and my TAs at Parsons. We’ve just started the University Lecture series and already it is clear that the entire learning/teaching experience in…

Old Politics Frame The Stimulus Package—And Innovation Losses Out. President Obama Needs to Control The Conversation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 08

In times of changes, most people revert to old frameworks to interpret problems and come up with solutions. The Stimulus Bill is a great example of that—to the detriment of…

How do You Innovate in a Recession? Ask Flip, Amazon, Apple and IBM.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 22

Innovating during this severe recession is a topic on a lot of people’s minds today, including IDEO’s Tim Brown. The need for innovation in this particular recession is particular acute…

Barack Obama—New President, New Website

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 21

Check out the new White House web site launched on the day of the inaugural. It’s got what a really good social media site needs to have. http://www.whitehouse.gov/ Corporations would…

Barack Obama’s Three Revolutions.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 19

The inauguration of Barack Obama is the culmination of three revolutions in American society—revolutions that the business community, indeed all communities, need to understand and embrace if it is to…

Does Barack Obama Understand Innovation? Maybe Not.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 12

Barack Obama’s appointment of a 30-year lifer from McKinsey, the management consulting firm, to Chief Performance Officer of the United States is, well, awful. At a time when the US…

The Social Value of Twitter.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 12

The Sociology of Social Media is a new frontier for us and Twitter is beginning to show how new forms of networks evolve, perform and benefit its members. David Armano…

Design At The Edge—My Lecture Series at Parsons School of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 11

I am a Professor of Innovation & Design at The New School in New York these days, working out of the amazing Parsons School For Design. This is in addition…

Can Tide Save The Planet?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 04

Here is an interesting factoid that I picked up visiting Craig Vogel’s LiveWell Collaborative design and innovation program at the University of Cincinnati a few weeks back. According to Procter…

The Transformation Conversation: Is “Transformation” a Better Concept Than “Innovation” to Guide us Forward?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 03

We are having a great conversation on one of the most important subjects in our lives—how we can change our broken institutions and out-dated culture to survive and thrive within…

“Innovation” is Dead. Herald The Birth of “Transformation” as The Key Concept for 2009.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 31

“Innovation” died in 2008, killed off by overuse, misuse, narrowness, incrementalism and failure to evolve. It was done in by CEOs, consultants, marketeers, advertisers and business journalists who degraded and…

Students At Parsons and The University of Cincinnati Are Innovating And Generating Economic Growth.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 19

It’s easy to get pessimistic in this holiday season as major institutions in our lives, especially the financial institutions, break our trust. But we shouldn’t despair. I recently visited two…

Ford and GM Need Business Model Innovation—Look to India’s Nano.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 18

Congress just loaned $17.4 billion to Ford, General Motors and Chrysler, but it didn’t do what it should have done—seriously mandate major changes in the distribution system of the US…

Steve Jobs’ Inspirational Advice: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 16

Every year recently, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, I play what I consider the most inspiration speech I have every heard and it is given, rather oddly, by Apple’s Steve Jobs….

Best Design and Innovation Christmas Presents.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 15

The holidays are approaching and a great source of presents for those “creatives” in your life can be found at the site of Core77, the terrific design site. One of…

Why Amazon’s Kindle Is A hit. It’s an iPod

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 04

Peter Mortensen at Jump hits it right on the head when he says that Kindle’s success is due to an ecosystem similar to Apple’ iPod/iTunes ecosystem, not product design. He…

Amazon’s Kindle Is A Success—Hooray For Designer Bob Brunner.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 04

Thanks to Oprah, the e-book reader Kindle sold by Amazon is sold out for Christmas. To me, this marks a high point in the extraordinary career of designer Robert Brunner,…

Native American Art Market for Christmas

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 01

This weekend, the National Museum of the American Indian will hold its annual Indian Market in New York City and Washington DC and they will be great places to buy…

Dear President-Elect Obama, Appointing Larry Summers to The National Economic Council is Not Enough. You Need An Innovation Dream Team.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 20

Dear President-Elect Obama. It’s great to see you appointing so many competent officials from the Clinton Administration, such as Lawrence Summers, but you need to go beyond competence in your…

Does Obama Really “Get” Innovation? Not Really.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 19

I’ve been reading the Obama Administration Plan for Innovation, Science & Technology on the barackobama.com.issues.technology site. And the site name gives it all away—the discussion about innovation is on the…

The Recession—Is There an Upside to the Downside? Facebook.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 19

Check out this Facebook page that asks the question: Turning Recession on it’s Head—Is There an Upside to the Downside? I really like the idea of constraints forcing creative solutions….

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson is the Grand Designer.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 16

Hank Paulson is taking heat from economists, Wall Street institutional investors and politicians in Congress for changing the federal government bailout policy. The stock market went down last week partly…

Ask Motorola’s Design Guru Bruce Claxton Five Questions.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 12

Over at the Innovation & Design channel, Helen Walters has launched a great feature—Ask Five Questions. She tells you, the audience, that she’s going to interview someone big in the…

Islamic Innovation in Dubai.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 12

On the road to the airport in Dubai, I passed a big billboard sign. It said: “Innovation Thinking Based on Islamic Values.” Fascinating….

Brainstorming with 699 Minds in Dubai.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 09

It’s one thing to do collaborative innovation over a digital social network but it’s another to do it physically in a huge room in Dubai—which is what I did yesterday….

World Economic Forum in Dubai Day 2—The Design Manifesto.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 09

Here is the “manifesto” of our Global Agenda Council/Design group that came out of an amazing day of discussion in Dubai about the financial/economic crisis and what design thinking can…

Drinking Gin In A Bar In Dubai.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 06

At the end of Day 1 in Dubai, the day before the Summit On The Global Agenda begins, I am dazed and delighted. Here are some superficial observations: I was…

Advice for President-Elect Obama—Design The Future, Don’t Repeat The Past.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 06

In looking at the people President-elect Obama is choosing for his transition team and the names of those proposed for the new administration, I find familiarity, not surprise. They are…

The Internet As A Right—At The World Economic Forum In Dubai.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 06

I had breakfast this morning in Dubai with John Rossant, a wonderful friend and now head of Publicis’ event operation. John is putting on the World Economic Forum’s Summit on…

Designing America After The Election.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 04

I’m a few hours away from flying to Dubai for a World Economic Forum meet-fest on designing the world post-crisis. Brian Collins is in my Design GAC—Global Agenda Council— and…

McCain and Obama: Voting In New York.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 04

Just finished voting in New York City. Got there at 8AM, finished at around 9AM. It was the longest line I can remember, with everyone on it very jazzed. Of…

Clorox Profits Rise, Helped by Burt’s Bees and Green Works Brand.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 03

OK, here’s the future. In this time of recession, with consumer spending plummeting and corporate profits disappearing, Clorox, the bleach maker, is making money by going green. It is selling…

Obama Vs. McCain in The Most Transformative Election in Recent History.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 03

Whoever wins on Tuesday, November 4, this election will turn out to be one of the most transformative events of our lives. The role of social media in the electoral…

Robin Chase—The Founder of ZipCar—on ZipCar Capitalism.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 31

I received this great comment from ZipCar’s Robin Chase on ZipCar Capitalism. Check it out and check out her blog. “As Zipcar (and GoLoco.org) founder and former CEO, I totally…

ZipCar Capitalism: A New Economic Model?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 30

I’m off to the World Economic Forum conference in Dubai on Tuesday night after I vote. Some 700 folks, including Jeff Jarvis at Buzzmachine, are going to brainstorm about making…

This Recession Will Breed Innovation. Here’s What Companies Need to Focus on.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 29

Maybe it’s the 11% jump in stocks, but I’m beginning to see the deep recession as a great opportunity for innovation. Crisis brings change and a BIG crisis can create…

World Economic Forum Meeting in Dubai to Redesign The Global Economy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

On November 4, right after I vote, I fly out to Dubai for a World Economic Forum meeting of 700 people who hope to redesign the global economy post-financial/economic crisis….

Designing an Innovation Economy: Shifting From Consumption to Creation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 28

My good friend and brilliant economist Mike Mandel has an interesting piece up online on why we need to redesign the US economy away from consumption to production. The key…

Alan Greenspan Speaks on Financial Innovation. Why it Failed.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

Please read the testimony of ex-Federal Reserve Chairman before Congress on why the financial innovation of recent years, which he championed, failed so utterly. It is important to understand this…

Barack Obama’s Cabinet Picks For innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 27

I don’t know who will win on November 4 but if Obama becomes the next US President, here’s some advice for picking a cabinet for the 21st century. First, forget…

Innovation Insights From Google’s Marissa Mayer, Citigroup’s Amy Radin, and R/GA’s Bob Greenberg.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 22

As part of Cooper Hewitt’s National Design Week, I moderated a terrific panel Wednesday morning with R/GA co-founder Bob Greenberg, Citi’s consumer innovation guru Amy Radin and Marissa Mayer from…

3 Innovation Principles from Hewlett Packard’s Innovation Chief Sam Lucente And How They Can Guide Us Through The Recession.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 22

We are entering what may be a sharp and perhaps prolonged recession and innovation can help companies get through it. I remember talking with HP’s Sam Lucente a while back…

Doing BIF—the Business Innovation Factory—Collaborative Innovation Summit.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 14

I’m in Providence, RI, at the start of BIF-4, the fourth annual conference on innovation that revolves around story-telling. The idea is to get brilliant people who have innovated or…

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson Needs To Think Like a Designer To Fix The Financial Crisis.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 13

The failure to employ the methods of innovation and design thinking to the current financial mess is prolonging and deepening the crisis. It is now clear that Treasury Secretary Hank…

Is New York Finished As A Global Financial Center?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 10

I’m a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (from my editorial days) and here’s a thoughtful essay on the impact of the current financial crisis on New York City,…

Apple’s iPhone Has A Razr Problem—Part Two.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 08

One of the great benefits of blogging is the information you glean from the comments posted and we have lots of data now from the 30 or so comments to…

The World Economic Forum Declares The U.S. The Most Competitive—And Innovative— Country In The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 08

In this period of dark gloom and doom, it’s important to keep our focus on what is vital and what is not. The new Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 from the…

Apple’s Brand Expansion With the iPhone: From Fans to Customers.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

Judging from the comments on my post about troubles with the iPhone’s phone, there appears to be a cleavage betweeen Apple’s original core of younger, devoted fans and the new,…

Apple’s iPhone Has Motorola’s Razr Problem.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

Nearly everyone I know who has an iPhone is beginning to hate it. They love the applications, the music, the movies, the gps—but the basic cell phone function is terrible….

What Tata Should Do To Revive Jaguar.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

I just received this thoughtful analysis of what India’s Tata should do to revive Jaguar. It’s the best I’ve seen anywhere. Check it out. And thanks Barrett. “This purchase should…

Congress Readies To Vote On The Financial Package—Get Ready For The Post-Wall Street World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 01

It’s time to step back and see the contours of our redesigned global political economy. The refutation of the past 30 years of neo-liberal market economics—which is what the financial…

Why The New York Times Is No Longer The Voice Of Authority—The Museum of Arts And Design Coverage.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

I was at MAD—the new Museum of Arts and Design— in New York twice over the weekend and it was mobbed by hoards of 20 and 30-something people standing in…

Muhammad Yunus, Founder of Grameen Bank, on the US Financial Crisis

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

I interviewed the founder of Grameen Bank Muhammad Yunus recently and asked him about the current financial crisis gripping the US and the world. He laughed and said that Grameen…

Ask The Innovation Guru.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

Building on news that corporate managers are flocking to innovation universities, check out my video on the Ask The Innovation Guru series….

Innovation Universities Are Hot—Rotman, Ziba, IDEO, Continuum, Stanford, Institute of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

I just got off the phone with Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management at the U of Toronto, who told me that corporations are flocking to his…

Seth Godin Says.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 25

Check out these “Sethisms.”…

Treasury Secretary Paulson and Fed Chairman Bernanke And Congress Are Designing A New Economic Model. But Will It Be A Good One?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 23

Brace yourselves for massive change, as the financial crisis leads to a major redesign of the US economy and a significant recession. The recession is an almost certainty but the…

The Museum of Arts And Design Is Opening in New York And It’s Terrific.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 23

MAD or the Museum of Arts and Design is opening this weekend and it’s a marvel of appropriate and beautiful design. Mayor Mike is presiding over the opening ceremony as…

The New School Appoints Bruce Nussbaum Professor of Innovation And Design

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 22

I’ve always wanted to live an “interesting life” and the journey has taken me to fascinating places. So I’m changing titles. For the next year and perhaps beyond, I’ll be…

Tim Brown From IDEO Has A New Blog.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 17

One of the most insightful minds on design thinking and innovation is now blogging—IDEO’s Tim Brown. Tim is writing a book on the subject off his recent Harvard Business Review…

Did Innovation Cause The Crisis on Wall Street?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 15

The stock market is crashing, housing prices are plummeting and the economy is poised for a severe downturn so I’m reminded of the criticism I heard at the World Economic…

John McCain and Barack Obama—What Is Your Innovation Policy?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 08

I’ve been offline for two weeks, spending much off it in the Southwest, outside of broadband range. Returning to the theater of our politics is a jolt, with most of…

Indian Market at Santa Fe is About to Begin.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 17

I’m off for the annual Indian Market at Santa Fe, the biggest juried contest of Native American art in the world. It’s put on by SWAIA, the Southwestern Association for…

Go To The Business Innovation Factory—BIF—Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 13

Lot’s of big Fall events coming up. One of the best is BIF—the Business Innovation Factory People come and tell 15 minute stories about innovation. I’ll be co-hosting this year…

From The Folks Who Gave You Nike+, R/GA Launches Brand Design Practice

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 12

I get dozens of PR releases a day and usually dump them but this one from R/GA is intriguing so I thought I’d share. R/GA, remember, worked with Nike to…

Cisco And Hewlett Packard Need Better Business Models For Video Conferencing.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 05

Flying to business meetings and conferences is not only hugely expensive these days, it is hugely polluting. Yes, I know that TED, the World Economic Forum and the Oscars are…

Procter & Gamble Wins On Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 05

Procter & Gamble is one of the 25 companies that make up the S&P/Business Week Global Innovation Index and it’s strong fiscal fourth quarter showing in sales and profits reflect…

Clay Shirky is Brilliant—We Have A Cognitive Surplus!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

Read this: http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html And thanks to Seth Godin for pointing this out….

Business Model Innovation: Best Buy, P&G and Apple Get it. Starbucks Doesn’t Get It.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

An economic crisis can be a crucible that forges new innovations in business operations or they can lead companies to make dumb mistakes that destroy them as they rush blindly…

5 Ways To Make Starbucks A Better Experience From Pentagram.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 25

Starbucks needs some innovation and not just a makeover. It needs serious business model innovation as well as a significant redesign of its space. Pentagram’s Jim Biber has a terrific…

IBM Gets Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 23

You won’t find the words “design” or “design thinking” in any of IBM’s smart Stop—Start ads but look at what they pitch and preach. Stop: Selling What You Have Start:…

Ask The Innovation Guru.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 23

We’re trying something new. I’m buying a Flip camcorder and will video myself (I know this sounds weird) answering questions you throw at me about innovation, design thinking, business model…

LG Is Opening A Design Lab In New York City.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 21

I hear on good authority that Korea’s LG is opening a new design lab in New York in August. It’s the latest evidence of New York reemerging as a design…

Human Fat Powers Fastest Boat.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 21

A New Zealander has built a super-fast, nasty-looking boat powered by his own fat. I wrote about it in December. Earthrace, as it is called, the first trans-ocean biodiesel trimaran…

2008 Top Designs in The World: International Design Excellence Awards.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 18

We have the winners of the International Design Excellence Awards online and in print and they are awesome. There are great videos as well. The Webster video (he’s from IDEO)…

What Laura Bush Told Me At The White House.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 16

http://www.nationaldesignawards.org/2008/I had brunch at the White House on Monday, thanks to being a Finalist for a National Design Award, given by the Smithsonian Cooper Hewitt National Design Museum (yep, it’s…

Did Innovation Trigger This Financial Meltdown With Fannie Mae And Freddie Mac And Cause A Recession?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 16

I’ve been sitting on the beach pondering what one senior European banker told me in January in Davos at the World Economic Forum—“you always talk about the benefits of innovation…

Will General Motors Pick Up Chrysler On The Cheap?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 27

My forecast that the cost-cutting strategy of the private equity Cerberus guys who bought Chrysler from Daimler Benz would fail is, unfortunately, turning out to be true. By hiring ex-Home…

The 10 Commandments of Web Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 27

Matt Vella over at the Innovation & Design site interviewed RISD’s John Meada, Don Norman, NYTimes.com’s Khoi Vinh and other smart folks on web usability and came up with The…

IDEO’s Tim Brown On Innovation In The Harvard Business Review.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 25

The fact that the Harvard Business Review asked IDEO’s CEO Tim Brown to write about Design Thinking in the current issue is as important as what he had to say…

Hooray for McCain. A $300 million Contest for A Better Battery Is A Great Idea.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 24

Way to go John McCain. There is nothing more imporant to the US and the world than an incentive-driven competitive innovation process to produce a better battery. A smaller, ligher,…

Best Applications For The iPhone And The Mobile Web.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 24

There is a great package of stories on the latest mobile web design on the Innovation & Design channel starting with the best applications for the iPhone. The criteria were…

Ben Arent Creates a OLPG—One Laptop Per Grannie. Get Him Venture Funding.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 23

Just got a post from Ben Arent in the UK on his “Betty,” a social networking system for all our grannies. Ben uses sophisticated design thinking and methodology to come…

One Laptop Per Grannie—OLPG.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 20

I just got back from trips to Florida and Oregon to visit two very old folks—one 93 and one nearing 90. Both are women, one lives in assisted living, the…

Frank Tyneski, Director of IDSA, Talks About Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 20

Check out the great video pod interview with Frank Tyneski, the new head of the Industrial Designers Society of America. He talks about moving from push to pull, the promise…

The Economist Doesn’t Understand Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 11

I recently posted on why the Presidential candidates—and the nation—need to start a conversation about designing a National Innovation Policy. It suggested a number of things we might want to…

A Slide Show Of Peruvian Kids Using One Laptop Per Child Computers.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 08

Geri Smith did a remarkable job in Peru for the Old Laptop Per Child story in the current issue of IN—Inside Innovation. Check out her narrated slide show of the…

The Mismanagement of One Laptop Per Child.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 05

The next issue of Inside Innovation is out online on Thursday and in print on Friday and it features a cover story on how the One Laptop Per Child foundation…

Why Clinton Lost To Obama. Obama Designed A Better Campaign.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 04

There are many reasons why Hillary Clinton lost the Democratic Party nomination to Barack Obama but perhaps the most important is that the Obama campaign’s use of modern principles in…

Stairway to Brand Heaven—And Hell.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 04

Check out David Armano’s illo of the steps to Brand Heaven—and Brand Hell. From disloyalty to loyalty….

Brand Autopsy on Business Week

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 04

Check out branding guru John Moore’s blog Brand Autopsy Marketing Practice on why in-depth journalism has a strong following. It’s about my own magazine, which makes me reluctant to call…

Top Ten Most Networked Nations In The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 03

The World Economic Foundation out of Davos, Switzerland has a new report out on the most networked economies around the globe. It’s called The Global Information Technology Report: 2007-2008. Here…

My Green Metrocard For The Subway.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 03

I bought a Metrocard for the New York subway recently and it was colored green, not the usual black. Nice. Then I flipped it around and there it was. A…

Obama at Google on a National Innovation Policy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 02

Thank you Gustavo Munoz for pointing out this YouTube video of Barack Obama talking at Google a year ago about innovation. Here are the outlines of an Obama National Innovation…

Chicago Is The Most Innovative Big City In America.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 28

What US city has a Department of Innovation and Technology? Chicago. And none other, as far as I know (maybe Portland, OR?) I met Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer of…

Time For a National Innovation Policy. McCain And Obama Need To Get Real.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 28

I’m hoping the Presidential candidates begin to have a serious conversation about innovation because the primaries have been singularly devoid of any serious discussion on this critical issue. China, Britain,…

Beyond Blogs—What Business Needs to Know About Social Media.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 27

Stephen Baker and Heather Green are two of the smartest people when it comes to social media and they have a great cover story out (and podcast) that you shouldn’t…

Phoenix Lands On Mars—Don’t Take It For Granted.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 27

I saw the amazing Mars probe Phoenix at the Serious Play conference at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and it was truly incredible. The JPL folks are…

Why Claudia Kotchka Is Leaving Procter & Gamble.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 23

I just talked with Claudia Kotchka at a book party in Chicago for Roger Martin and his great book on integrative thinking, The Opposable Mind. Claudia says she is leaving…

Claudia Kotchka Leaves Procter & Gamble.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 22

RitaSue Siegel just pinged me that Claudia Kotchka, the vp of innovation, design and strategy at P&G is leaving. This is huge. She is a giant in design and second…

Talking Cool Stuff With Critical Mass in Chicago.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 21

I visited the great digs of digital experience design house Critical Mass today and was wowed with the terrific work they are doing. Critical Mass as design thinking and methodology…

Google Health—Who Can You Trust With Your Medical Records?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 21

I’ve been looking at the new Google Health site. It can organize all your health records and link you up to other people with your own medical problems. So the…

Adaptive Path—Check This Out.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 20

For consumer experience, Adaptive Path is one of the best. See this video. Thanks for the shout-out, Armano. Of course, his firm, Critical Mass, is one of the best as…

Second Generation One Laptop Per Child Due In 2010.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 20

I just received this release from OLPC passed on to me by fuseproject’s Yves Behar. Fascinating. Check out the image. ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD FRAMES NEXT GENERATION OF REVOLUTIONARY XO…

Is GE Right In Getting Out Of Appliances?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

Lots of buzz on my post questioning whether or not GE is innovative or not. I’m still not sure. I know it is inventive and does high tech work well,…

Fantastic Strategy Conference at the IIT Institute of Design on May 22.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

I’m off to one of my favorite conferences this coming week—Patrick Whitney’s annual Strategy Conference—at the IIT Institute of Design in Chicago. You can catch two of the many terrific…

The End of The One Laptop Per Child Experiment—When Innovation Fails.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop Per Child organization admitted defeat in its effort to sell millions of open-source computers in Asia, Africa and Latin America by joining with Microsoft to load…

How Innovative Is GE Really?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 15

General Electric is selling its appliance division and the decision brings up a host of questions about whether or not the company is truly innovative or merely mouthing the words,…

Have You Heard of CIME?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 13

For years, the term “BRIC” was hot on Wall Street—and increasingly in design and innovation circles. BRIC stood for Brazil, Russia, India, China—the fastest growing emerging markets. Now another term…

Love Your Mars Rover.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 13

One of the coolest guys at the Serious Play conference at The Art Center College of Design in Pasadena was Nobel prize-winning cosmologist George Smoot. He works at JPL, the…

Google at Serious Play Conference in Pasadena.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 11

I had a blast at the Serious Play conference put on by The Art Center College of Design last week. The theme: play is seriously creative and innovative if you…

Serious Play at The Art Center College in Pasadena.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 06

I’m heading out Wednesday to Pasadena for a great conference on Serious Play and innovation at The Art Center College of Design. Chee Pearlman is orchestrating the event and it…

New York Design Week.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 06

It’s May 17-20, and is based around the ICFF furniture fair. Check out the schedule for New York Design Week from our partners at Core77….

New York As An Innovation Center—Maybe.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 06

Check out this great comment by Ross on my post saying that NYC is becoming a big innovation/design center. He argues that media/marketing is moving toward design in terms of…

Is New York The New Innovation And Design Center?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 05

I hear that San Francisco-based innovation consultant Stone Yamashita Partners is opening an office in New York City in a few months on West 12th street. San Mateo-based Jump Associates,…

An Important New Book: The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 02

Fareed Zakaria is one of the most thoughtful foreign policy analysists of our day and his new book, The Post-American World, is a must-read for anyone interested in globalization—or the…

Jeff Jarvis on Blogging.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 01

Just came out of a great presentation on blogging by Jeff Jarvis of buzzmachine.com. He was talking to an audience of neophytes and “old” hands and did a great job….

The Economy IS Down, P&G IS Up. It’s Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 30

News this morning is of a weakening economy in the first quarter of 08, with final sales off 0.2%, the first drop since the first quarter of 02. Business investment…

IBM On “Succeeding Through Service Innovation.”

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 30

Check at Matt Vella’s review of an important new study out of IBM’s London operation on the importance of service innovation for education, research, business and government. It’s a good…

Who Is Rick Poynor And Why Is He Criticizing Bruce Nussbaum, Roger Martin, Larry Keeley, Sohrab Vossoughi, Peter Merholz And Design Thinking?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 28

Once a year, for the past three years I think, the design community gets embroiled in a heated debate about business people stealing the soul of designers. The latest permutation…

Hillary Clinton Beats Barack Obama in Pennsylvania—Old Networks Beat New Networks in Politics.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 23

Hillary Clinton’s win over Barack Obama last night reflects many things but the one that most intrigues me is that it was the triumph of traditional network politics over modern…

Top 20 Asian Picks For The Most Innovative Companies in The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 22

We asked senior executives in Asia for their choices of The Most Innovative Companies and here is their list. It’s a bit different from the Global 25 Most Innovative Companies….

Starbucks, Dell, Intel, Virgin—Big Losers In The World’s Most Innovative Companies List.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 21

Digging into the new list of The World’s Most Innovative Companies, the companies that have fallen significantly are as interesting to ponder as those that have risen sharply—or appeared for…

5 Lessons Learned From The Most Innovative Companies In The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 18

Innovation in a recession is the overall theme of this year’s Most Innovative Companies survey that BW did with BCG. Delving through the the Q&A with Amazon’s Bezos, the video…

50 Of The Most Innovative Companies In The World. Tata, General Morotors, Facebook Are Big Surprises.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 18

Check out 50 of The Most Innovative Companies around the globe in the current issue of IN—Inside Innovation. And there are a number of surprises. Two Indian companies made the…

Jack Welch Beats Up General Electric’s Jeff Immelt. But Who’s The Real Innovator?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 16

It’s rare for an ex-ceo to publicly criticize his successor but Jack Welch leveled a harsh blast against GE’s Jeff Immelt days after the company announced a surprise drop in…

Innovation Stocks Do Better: The S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index Beats The S&P 500 and the S&P Global 100.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 16

Housing is down sharply in the US and UK, food prices are soaring in Asia, and companies are getting hit by the deepening economic downturn. So what to do? Innovate….

The Game-Changer by A.G. Lafley And Ram Charan Is The Most Important Book On Innovation Out There.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 14

Go buy The Game-Changer: How You Can Drive Revenue And Profit Growth With Innovation by A.G. Lafley immediately. Lafley, the remarkable CEO of Procter & Gamble, gives us the state-of-the-art…

Starbucks Innovates And Gets It Right.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 10

I’ve been hard on Starbucks lately for the disappointing service but the coffee chain introduced a new product/service recently that is superb. The little green swizzle stick-stopper that plugs the…

JetBlue—The Problem With Customer Loyalty.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 09

I’m getting slammed here for my post complaining about JetBlue service by a lot of very loyal customers. JetBlue has worked very hard to cultivate this kind of loyalty and…

JetBlue Insults Its Loyal Customers—My Bad Consumer Experience.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 08

JetBlue has succeeded where most companies have failed in building enormous customer loyalty and it is a tragedy when the airline does something so boneheaded that it insults and infuriates…

Design is Dead: The Raw Philippe Starck Interview

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 31

Check out Starck’s entire interview on why he’s disgusted with design—or at least HIS kind of design. My favorite question-response in the Die Zeit interview is this: ZEIT: So all…

Design Is Dead. Philippe Starck Says So. Again.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 30

It’s deja vu all over again for me but Philippe Starck just told a German magazine Die Zeit that “I was a producer of materiality and I am ashamed of…

Did Boeing Go Too Far In Open Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 30

We’re all gung-ho these days on open innovation, taking down the internal corporate walls, blowing up the NIH, Not Invented Here, culture and globalizing. But Boeing is sending us a…

New Solar Tiles For Roofs—Tiles, Not Panels.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 30

Peter Bressler of the BresslerGroup is an old friend and incredible designer. His last great product, the Vocal Smoke Detector allowed mothers and fathers to record their own voices to…

Innovation at General Motors: Is Pontiac The Next BMW?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 28

Diego Rodriguez, partner at IDEO, prof at Stanford D-School and car nut is my guru on innovation in autos and he has a great post on what’s going on at…

Cool iPhone Beta Application—Pocket Planet Glazer.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 28

Check out this video of an iPhone apps about the solar system that David Armano at Critical Mass put together. (If you have an iPhone or Safari, click here). I…

Motorola Splits in Two—Why The Razr Was a Fluke And What The Company Needs To Do Now.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 26

Motorola has decided to split itself in two—a failing mobile-phone business and a so-so network equipment/two-way radio/set-top box business. This is a default strategy. Motorola tried for months to sell…

20 Free, New Online Games! The New Gaming And New Games.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 25

Check out the great package on how designers are transforming games from toys to socially rich entertainment. Helen Walters, the doyen of the Innovation & Design channel and Matt Vella…

Young Global Leaders From India.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 18

Since so much of NussbaumOnDesign’s audience is in India, I thought I’d break out the names of those Indians who were just selected as members of the World Economic Forum’s…

Young Global Leaders—Anderson Cooper and Leonardo DiCaprio Are In The Most Exclusive Private Social Network In The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 18

The World Economic Forum out of Davos just announced its new 2008 list of YGLs—Young Global Leaders. In a growing universe of private social networks, the YGL network has got…

JP Morgan Chase Joins With The Federal Reserve To Bailout Bear Stearns—Welcome To The New World of Financial Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 17

When I was in Davos in January, moderating workshops and panels on innovation, there was a deep undercurrent of anger at “financial innovation.” People were grumbling, “thanks for all that…

How 4 Game-Changing Innovation Spaces Can End The Recession And Return The Economy To Growth.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 14

As I feared, the recession is turning out to be much worse than expected. It is going to be sharper, deeper and probably longer than recent shallow recessions. We are…

Thinking Big Thoughts

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 26

I’m going to take time off from blogging to cogitate a bit. I love curating conversations and being part of others but there are times when I have to turn…

The Many Ways Blogs, Twitter, YouTube FaceBook, MySpace And Other Social Media Will Change Your Business

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 23

The brilliant duo of Stephen Baker and Heather Green have written one of the most insightful articles on the impact of social media on business models and business organization. It’s…

Bissell Replies To My Criticism Of It’s Intrusive Data Gathering.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 21

Here’s what I received from Bissell today. I’m happy they responded. It’s good that the company is checking the blogosphere for comment. But is it sufficient? Let me know. “BISSELL…

India’s Tata Group Expands Its Innovation Base Beyond The Nano Into Aerospace.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 20

India’s striking efforts in innovation warrants close watch and the recent moves by the Tata Group into aerospace promise to bring new business models to the world. Last month, Tata…

Go To MOMA—The Museum of Modern Art—And See The New Exhibit: Design And The Elastic Mind.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 19

Paola Antonelli gave a preview of her new exhibit at MOMA, Design And The Elastic Mind at the World Economic Forum in Davos and it is opening tonight, Tuesday, in…

Bissell Insults My Moma. Brand Suicide.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 18

I was down in Florida over the weekend and bought a vacuum cleaner for my Mom. She wanted a brand name at a reasonable price so we got a Bissell….

Violence in Kenya and Pakistan Challenge the Microfinance Moldel.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 17

Microfinance has been been one of financial innovations best able to empower people at the bottom of the pyramid to plug into economic growth and move out of poverty. But…

Obama Vs. Clinton On YouTube: Is He Winning The Hearts And Minds? You Bet.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 16

We now all know that Obama is running a Membership campaign versus Clinton’s Consumer compaign. His is a movement for social change that people belong to. Hers is an coalition…

Yahoo Design Innovation Team Fired.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 15

Just saw the Portfolio.com confirms that the Yahoo Design Innovation team has been let go, as in fired, to save money. I haven’t confirmed their confirmation, but if true, it’s…

Enter A Contest To Build A Factory And Internet Hub For The Kallari Villages—And Support Great Chocolate For The World!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 14

The dinner at Davos given by AMD for the Kallari villages in Ecuador was actually in honor of Cameron Sinclair who’s organization, Architecture for Humanity, is running a contest on…

The Best Chocolate In The World. Collaborative Innovation in The Amazon Forest.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 13

At a dinner by AMD at the World Economic Forum a few weeks ago, I was given a piece of chocolate in the “goodie” bag at the table. It was…

Apple And Google Are Down But The New S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index Shows That Innovation-Driven Companies Perform Much Better Than Most.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 13

The news on Apple and Google is grim, as their stocks fall sharply from their highs. The fear is that people will pull back their discretionary spending as the recession…

5 Ways To Innovate In A Recession.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 13

The single most important thing happening in the innovation and design space is the recession. Inside companies, dealing with the impending recession is the conversation of the day. The latest…

A New Innovation Index—The S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 08

Check out our new S&P/BusinessWeek Global Innovation Index that we launch today. It’s part of our ongoing effort to provide innovation tools and methods on the Innovation & Design site…

Is Search A Lie? Can You Really Believe Google?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 08

I sat next to a a guy I’ve know for years from a major public relations/media relations firm at the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago and he…

A Concorde Mini—Supersonic Flight For The Business Class.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 05

If you need a break from news on the primaries and the economy, take a look at this incredible business jet. Not yet real, but with lots of orders in,…

The Sky Really Is Falling—The Economy Is In Recession.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 05

A key measure of the US economy, the ISM Services Index, just plummeted this morning to a level not seen since Oct. 2001. Anything under 50 indicates “recession” and the…

Twitter is an Event Aggregator.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 05

I’m getting a lot of pressure from “friends” to twitter and if I had another 24 hours in the day I would definitely do it. Why? Here’s an example of…

Obama, Clinton, McCain All Talk Change But Is Change Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 05

I just voted in NYC and was thinking about all the talk of “change” in the air. All three leading candidates now talk about change. And it troubles me. Change…

Google, MySpace And The Segmentation of Social Networking Quickens.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 04

Buried in Google’s quarterly results was a note saying that it was having a harder time than anticipated getting ad revenue out of MySpace. Surprise, it’s turning out that social…

Microsoft Bids For Yahoo—A Merger Of The Weak Based On Technologies Of The Past.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 01

Bill Gates gave a wonderful speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos about the need for “creative capitalism” or social entrepreneurialism but with the news of Microsoft bidding for…

Surfing And The Art of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 31

John Hagel and John Seeley Brown have written the most amazing piece on surfing and the lessons it teaches for innovation. Let me crib: “While all attention was on the…

Proctor & Gamble Has Great Profits— Read About How A.G.Lafely Makes Innovation Happen.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 31

Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management in Toronto, has a great book out called The Opposable Mind in which he talks about how successful CEOs have integrative…

Greener Gadgets Conference in NYC Friday.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 31

If you’re in New York Friday, drop into the McGraw-Hill Building to see the huge and important Greener Gadgets Conference. The address is 1221 Avenue of the Americas and that’s…

First Day at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 22

On Wednesday, everyone at the WEF will be talking about innovation—financial innovation. The focus will be on the financial engineering of SIVs and CDOs and other financial instruments that smart…

Innovation Measurement:Tracking the State of Innovation in the American Economy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 21

One of the most important documents to come out from the government on innovation is this report to the Commerce Secretary by The Advisory Committee on Measuring Innovation in the…

Preview to my Innovation Panel at The World Economic Forum in Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 21

I’m getting ready to fly out to Zurich and then drive up to Davos (2 hours if it doesn’t snow) and just finished emailing my panel for the Defining Innovation…

Blogging From The World Economic Forum in Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 20

There will be hundreds of bloggers at the WEF in Davos this coming week and the best way to check them out is through this site. One of the best…

The World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos Begins on Wednesday. Collaboration Innovation is The Theme.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 18

I fly out to Davos for the World Economic Forum on Monday and will be moderating a couple of fascinating panels and workshops on innovation. The theme of the entire…

IIT Institute of Design Strategy Conference Is A Must.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 16

We all go to a lot of conferences these days but one you should not miss is conference put on by Patrick Whitney at the IIT Institute of Design in…

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Delayed Again. Collaboration Can Be Very Hard.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 16

News that delivery of the Boeing Dreamliner will be delayed a second time due to parts problems highlights the true truth about globalization and collaboration—it is extremely hard to manage…

Cisco and BT Use Collaborative Innovation To Foster Sustainable Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 16

Want to seriously cut down on your carbon footprint while generating even better innovation? Try not flying and using some of the super-videoconferencing tools around. BT and Cisco, using Cisco’s…

Apple Invents the Thinnovation Laptop: Thinnest In The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 15

Not too many laptops fit into a standard inter-office envelop but the new MacBook Air does. There will be tons of blah-blah about this beautiful artifact but what struck me…

Obama Vs. Clinton: What Their Web Sites Say About How They View You.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 14

When you go to a political website, are you treated as a “customer” when you make a contribution or as a “member?” There is a big difference between your “consumer…

10 Worst Innovation Mistakes In A Recession.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 13

We are probably already in a recession (or very close to it) and, in the past, CEOs made serious mistakes in trying to cope with a slowing economy. Here is…

Storm Over My Tata Car Post.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 09

An interesting and stormy thread is brewing over my post on the forthcoming $2,500 car from Tata Motors. A number of Indians point out that the US has done very…

Why Starbucks Stinks.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 08

I see that founder Howard Schultz is returning as CEO to Starbucks and have some advice for him. All good brands are relationships, not just products, and Starbucks’ relationship with…

India’s Tata Leads Car Innovation—But Is It The Right Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 08

Tata Motors of India will soon unveil a $2,500 car that is a not only a marvel of low-cost manufacture but a novel business model innovation. The “People’s Car” (this…

Sales For One Laptop Per Child—Give One Get One.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 07

Sales of the olpc xo laptop for the Give One Get One holiday program came to 162,000—or 81,000 depending on how you do the math. Some 81,000 Americans bought the…

One Laptop Per Child Versus Intel—Who Speaks for India and China?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 06

At the Consumer Electronic Show this week, the One Laptop Per Child foundation was supposed to make two announcements—the number of computers it sold under the Give One, Get One…

The Consumer Electronics Show—Style Over Experience?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 04

It’s great to see The Wall Street Journal wake up to design and innovation, but the recent story on the CES celebrates the most basic kind of design—style—and fails to…

The Iowa Caucuses Show People Want Change. Here’s Where Romney, Clinton, Richardson, Giuliani McCain, Edwards, Obama, Thompson Stand On Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 02

The Iowa caucuses are upon us and the message going into this Presidential election is that people want change. But what are the change agendas of the candidates? We asked…

Dell Makes One Amazing Laptop.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 23

In a Ripley’s Believe It Or Not tale, I have a story to tell about my Dell Latitude D400 laptop that survived an extraordinary flight. Two weeks ago, I was…

MIT Meets RISD: John Maeda Becomes President.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 21

In a brilliant move, John Maeda from the MIT Media Lab, is taking over as the new president of RISD, one of preeminent art and design schools in the world….

Top Ten Innovation Mistakes.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 20

We have a survey of surveys done by the big consulting firms on innovation showing that CEOs believe innovation is critical to their companies’ performance but don’t really know how…

Fastest Boat Powered By Human Fat. Is It Ecological?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 19

This may be the fastest boat ever built—the Earthrace—and it’s powered by fat. Peter Bethune, a New Zealander, will take it out on March 1—using some of his own fat…

Are Magazines The Killer App For The iPhone?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 07

No, seriously, zinio is one of the top ten applications for the iPhone according to Apple’s iPhone site and zinio is the software that gives you an incredibly good electronic…

NASA’s Nifty Site Has Great Social Media.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 04

People are always asking me for examples of websites that incorporate social media and I’m tired of pointing them to Nike+ so here is another site—NASA. Perfect for checking out…

Dell Goes Hot In Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 03

Dell is moving heavily into design to get away from its corporate commodity/low price business model and shift into a personal experience/higher price model. So I’m not totally surprised by…

One Laptop Per Child Has It’s First Test. Result? It Has A Long Way To Go.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 03

BBC News has a story on the very first introduction of One Laptop Per Child laptops into a poor village and it’s not pretty. OLPC put 300 laptops, along with…

Bob Schwartz Goes To GE HealthCare.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 28

Every once in a while you come across a truly amazing talent and Bob Schwartz is one of them. He just became GM of Global Design at GE Healthcare, which…

Apple And Google Smash Open The Telecom Oligopoly—Verizon Caves And Co-Creators Win.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 28

For those of us who believe people should be able to design their own tools, co-create their own products and services and control their own lives, the decision by Verizon…

Apple Isn’t Cutting In The Face Of Recession—Should You?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 27

Todd Walker posted a comment that is very important. He pointed to the fact that some Silicon Valley companies are not cutting back but adding to their talent pool to…

3.84% Signals Recession—This Will Be A Testing Time For CEOs And Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 26

The interest rate on the 10-year Treasury bond dropped to 3.84% on Monday, below that of the 2-year bond and you don’t have to be a financial whiz kid to…

Should We Free The Canon Webinar?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 26

I’m caught in a fascinating conunrum. Well, actually Canon is caught in a conundrum. I did a great video webinar before Thanksgiving with three pioneers in social networking—Joe Robinson of…

A Great Video on Social Media By Three Pioneers In It—Joe Robinson of asmallworld.com, Daphne Kwon of expotv.com and Douglas Atkins of meetup.com.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 20

Go to this site for amazing insights into the evolution of social networking. I moderated a panel on Tuesday with these leaders and their insights are incredibly useful. You gotta…

Are Facebook, MySpace And Open Social Networks Dead?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 16

The rise of gated social networks, where you need a “key” or invitation to get in, is throwing doubts on the future of Facebook and MySpace. The opening of these…

HP Incites Cultural Change—Innovation By Absorption of Startups.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 15

The cover story of the latest Inside Innovation by Reena Jana is a great case study of how Hewlett Packard, Yahoo! and other techie companies are buying startups to change…

Relationship Mapping—The Latest Tool.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 15

There is a wonderful piece in the latest IN on a new tool for innovation—relationship mapping (and mining) by Brian Hindo. It can take you to the edge of white…

What Are The Innovation Agendas of Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Richardson, Giuliani, McCain, Thompson and Romney?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 15

The latest edition of Inside Innovation is out and check out what the politicians think of innovation. And how they even define it. A great slide show of opinion. For…

Social Networking Webinar With Daphne Kwon of ExpoTV, Doug Atkins of Meetup.com and Joe Robinson of A Small World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 15

I’m going to be moderating a panel, along with Innovation editor Reena Jana, next Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 2PM on the how social networking is disrupting traditional business organizations. Daphne…

iPhone Envy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 14

Picture me at home, side by side, next to my wife. I’m on my Treo. She’s on her iPhone. Picture me bored, looking over to her iPhone as she laughs…

Renzo Piano Revealed. Amazing Work.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 14

Check out this wonderful story and slide show on one of the world’s top architects by Paula Lehman. Of course, Piano (or “Renzo” as people call him) is known, first,…

What Does Hillary Think of Innovation? Or Mitt, Barack, or Rudi?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 14

The next edition of Inside Innovation comes out online Thursday night and in print on Friday and one of my favorite stories asks the eight leading Republican and Democratic political…

The Next Inside Innovation Will Soon Appear—Here’s How We Created The First One.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 04

I had lunch with David Armano last week to talk about social media, the return of craft, the rise of identity to replace experience and lots of other fun things….

Dell Is Getting Serious About the Customer Experience.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 29

Dell is getting very serious about transitioning from the PC cube to the consumer experience. I heard in San Francisco recently at the World Design Conference that Dell has hired…

The Crisis of Success in Design/Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 25

I gave speech at the most amazing design conference I’ve ever attended last week in San Francisco, the Connecting ‘07 World Design Congress. Some of the top designers in the…

Facebook + Microsoft = AOL + Time Warner?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 25

I don’t know if Facebook is worth the 500 times earnings or $15 billion that the Microsoft investment says it is but it does reflect the bubbly atmosphere surrounding Silicon…

Inside The California Fires—A Need For Innovation To Fight Them.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 24

Just got back from the California fire zone, after staying with friends near Capistrano. I’ve been through earthquakes, typhoons, hurricanes and man-made disasters before, but never a fire-storm. At night,…

Connecting: The Amazing Design Conference In San Francisco.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 14

I’m off this Tuesday to CONNECTING’07 World Design Congress - Connecting to People and to Ideas that has an awesome array of talent and programs. The list of people presenting…

Quote of the Day.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 10

“Blogging is intellectual prototyping.” Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. You put the ideas out there and start a conversation that leads to something……

Business Week Reinvents The Magazine—Make Way For Curating The Conversation Through Aggregation, Briefings, And Story-Telling.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 10

I’ve been part of a secret process of reinventing the magazine medium that will be unveiled on Friday when a new kind of Business Week hits the stands and peoples’…

Design Vs. Design Thinking.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 09

We’re having an excellent conversation about design and design thinking and I’d really like it to continue. If you missed Christopher Fahey’s recent comment, please read it here. It’s an…

How Do You Learn To Be Innovative?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

I get asked that question a lot by people and now I have a pretty good answer—go to the blog of Jon Campbell—Branding and Innovation. Campbell did some amazing work…

What is Design Thinking? Who Teaches it Best?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

Check out this video on design thinking. It’s amazing. You have Roger Martin, dean of the Rotman Management School, Harry West head of strategy and innovation from Continuum, Dan Pink,…

Top Asian Schools For Innovation And Creativity.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

Here are the top Asian design and innovation schools in this years Top Talent Hunt list put together by a panel of 22 thought leaders. The rise of Asian design…

Best Schools/Programs To Find Creative Talent.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

Corporations and nonprofits are desperately searching for creative talent as the need for innovation becomes an imperative. Check out this second annual global list of design schools and joint programs…

A New Corporate Blog That Tracks Job Jumping.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 04

It’s hard to write about innovation within your own corporation, so I don’t usually, but this new corporate blog/content aggregator from Standard & Poor’s Capital IQ is extremely interesting. Most…

Is Porsche The King Of Sustainability?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 04

No really, I mean it. Thanks to great comment posted by a London graphic designer, Ben Terret, there is reason to call the sports car maker Porsche The King of…

The Plan To Disintermediate Ad Agencies (Like Get Rid Of Them).

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

My reporting shows that there are companies, leading companies, planning to do away with virtually all of their ad agencies and deal directly with their consumers. They say that most…

Why is The New York Times So Dumb About Design And Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 30

There is a sad, apologetic story about process innovation in The New York Times today that makes me want to cry about how one of the great Mainstream Media companies…

Ban Club Penguin And All Social Networking Sites! Are The Schools Right?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

It appears that many New York City schools are demanding that kids not access social networking sites such as Webkins and Club Penguin (recently bought by Disney). I guess they’re…

Where Are The Teachers In The Debate Over OLPC?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 28

The conversation thread over the “failure” of the OLPC is passionate, insightful and illuminating but it lacks one voice—where are the educators? I hear the voice of the designers, the…

General Motor’s CEO Rick Wagoner Pulls Off Business Model Innovation—Perhaps The Hardest Type of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 26

Larry Keeley at Doblin has taught me that there are many kinds of innovation and I think that the truly hardest is innovating the entire business model, which is what…

Is Intel Better Than OLPC In Teaching Kids At The Bottom Of The Pyramid?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 26

One of the hottest controversies around is that between Intel and the One Laptop Per Child Foundation over the best approach to educate poor children in rural villages in India,…

Xbox Against Wii And PS3—Who Has The Strongest Community?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 25

Any corporate “suit” reading this blog should take note of the incredible passion felt by the communities of gamers surrounding the Xbox 360 or PS3. They are posting comments like…

Why One Laptop Per Child Is A Failure.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 24

There’s been one heck of a conversation over whether or not the One Laptop Per Child is a failure and I’d like to continue it with another conversation focussed on…

It’s Time To Call One Laptop Per Child A Failure,

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 24

It breaks my heart to see such wonderful design work from so many talented designers go to waste but the announcement that the One Laptop Per Child Foundation is offering…

Can Halo 3 Save Xbox from Nintendo’s Wii? The Difference Between Incremental and Paradigm-Busting Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 23

For hard-core gamers, this week’s introduction of Halo 3 is a gigantic event and this third iteration of the Halo game series is said to be totally awesome. That will…

Chrysler Needs Smart Designers, Not Just Efficiency Experts.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 23

The brilliant Don Norman has posted an article that could save Chrysler if Cerberus and the private equity guys followed his advice. Norman asks a simple design question: How can…

Stanford 2007 David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series in Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 22

Jan Chipcase will lead off this year’s David H. Liu Memorial Lecture Series at Stanford and if you haven’t heard him or checked out his blog, this is a golden…

Design Thinking—What The Smartest People Are Saying.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 20

There are two amazing conferences taking place shortly that you should either attend or plug into online. DMI has a conference called Thinking Ahead: The Changing Role of Design and…

In A Recession, Who Wins, Who Loses In The Innovation Space?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 20

We’ve had an amazing run for innovative startups in social networking, green tech and search over the past few years and that may come to an abrupt end if we…

Jay Leno’s Hydrogen Powered BMW. Wowie.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 19

Jay Leno has got his hands on one of the few BMW hydorgen-powered Series 7 sedans and it’s a beauty. Leno already has a bio-diesel powered car in his steam-powered…

Facebook Suicide.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 19

People are killing off their Facebook profiles in droves, according to this great online piece in The Times. And in keeping with the collective social networking culture, they are starting…

Help, My Personal Brand Has Been Hijacked!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 18

Check out this Twitter, especially my photo on the top left. Yep, my “me” brand is being hijacked by dmisanthrope—someone clearly in the design/innovation community who wants to poke fun…

The Federal Reserve Cuts Rates By A Surprising Half Point. Be Afraid.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 18

The markets rallied on news that the Fed cut its key benchmark rate by a surprising 1/2 point, not the expected 1/4, reflecting the convention wisdom that this will solve…

Europe Fights For Competition And Innovation With Its Decision On Microsoft.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 18

The U.S. gave up regulating monopolies in technology years ago and the decision by the European Court of First Instance to force Microsoft to open up its monopoly should be…

Does Alan Greenspan Belong In The Pantheon of Innovation Greats?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 17

Ex-Fed chairman Alan Greenspan is on 60 Minutes, the cover of Newsweek and in practically every newspaper this week, flogging his new book The Age of Turbulence, and castigating Republicans…

Google’s Brand Takes A Hit.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 17

I don’t know why two guys need a big wide-bodied 767 jet to fly around, guzzling gas and polluting the planet and I don’t know why NASA cut them a…

MySpace Goes From Amateur To Professional.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 13

It’s fascinating to see the transformation of social networking sites such as YouTube and now MySpace from “us” content created by all of us to “them” content, made by the…

A Network Isn’t A Community.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 12

Over at Forrester, Chloe Stromberg has a great post on the distinction between network and community that many people miss (especially in marketing and advertising). Communities are bound by emotion…

iPhone Knock-Offs From China. What Can Apple Do?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 12

Psst. Wanna buy a cheap iPhone, like for $195? Well, there are knock-offs pouring out of China already. And they’re available here in the US. This is a serious problem…

Does Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke Realize The US May Be Facing An Innovation Crisis?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 12

With the housing decline beginning to hurt job growth in the rest of the economy, pressure is building on Fed Chairman Bernanke to cut interest rates fast and sharply. One…

We Are Gating Up Our Open Social Communities—Why?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 11

Look around and you see people putting up silos around social media. Invitation-only social networks like doostang.com and customized corporate vitual worlds are blossoming. FaceBook folks are putting digital “doors”…

Does Your Ad Agency Know Anything Real About Social Media?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 11

I have found it disturbing how little ad agency people know about social media. Old folks in ad agencies think they should put all their corporate clients (OK, nearly all)…

100 Fastest Growing Emerging Market Companies—Watch Them.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 11

The World Economic Forum created a new Community of Global Growth Companies. They are fast-growing emerging markets companies poised to go global. Here’s a link to the list. Check them…

Are Designers Just Dumb Blonds Or Society’s Saviors?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 10

The Yin and Yang of Design is tearing at me. I had lunch with John Kao, author of the new book, Innovation Nation, and talked about how design thinking needs…

Designer Frank Tyneski Becomes New Executive Director of the Industrial Designers Society of America.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

An award-winning designer has been picked to run the IDSA, that great professional organization that has done so much to spread design around the world. He’s Frank Tyneski, 39, years…

Jobs Are Weak, Recession May Loom—Do Not Cut Spending On Innovation!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

If you haven’t look at the stock market today, it’s sinking, thanks to a very weak jobs report that implies that the risk for recession is up considerably. I know…

Can Toyota Save Chrysler?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

The hiring of Jim Press from Toyota by Chrysler’s private equity owner Cerberus Capital Management throws important new managerial talent into the job of turning around the flagging Detroit auto-maker…

10 Cutting Edge Innovators From Inside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

People in the business community are always asking me “who’s new” or “who’s hot” in the field of design and innovation. Jessie Scanlon wrote a wonderful piece online that we…

Two New Books On Innovation And How To Think Like An Innovator.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

I have advanced copies of two books that I’m going to read this weekend. One is by Roger Martin, the dean of the Rotman School of Management and a leading…

Lost in the Land of the IPhone.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 07

Average corporate managers look at Apple and only seek success in being in touch with consumers and bringing out products they love, but the recent iPhone flap shows that the…

Can Six Sigma Save Chrysler?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 04

Please take a look at this comment by Dan Steele that defends Bob Nardelli’s management of Home Depot. It’s a good defense of his Six Sigma management. Since being appointed…

How IBM Manages Innovation Networks—Check Out Inside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 01

The sixth edition of Inside Innovation is out and I think it is our very best. Steve Hamm has an amazing inside look at how IBM creates and manages networks…

Redesign The Health System—Or How I Spent A Really Bad Summer Vacation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 31

Sorry for the long silence but I’ve been dealing with a serious family medical problem. It highlights the desperate need for design and innovation in the medical space. If you…

The Financial Sky Is Falling—So I’m Taking Off To Read Fiction.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 10

Well, the financial house of cards built on “securitization” of debt appears to be coming down and no one really knows how bad it will get so I’m going to…

What Nardelli Should Do At Chrysler.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 09

Stop what you are doing and jump to Jessie Scanlon’s Q&A with Doblin’s innovation consultant Larry Keeley on how Robert Nardelli should remake Chrysler. It is the very best insight…

Nardelli At Chrysler—Doesn’t Make Sense.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 08

Check out this Winding Road comment on the appointment of Robert Nardelli to head Chrysler. Winding Road is one of the best auto sites. David E. Davis’s criticism of Nardelli…

An iGoogle Gadget Gets You Directly To Harley-Davidson’s Sturgis Rally.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 07

I used to ride a motorcycle in the Peace Corps in the Philippines, something small as I recall, and dreamed, of course, of riding a Harley. Now, thanks to a…

Picking Robert Nardelli to Save Chrysler Is The Most Bone-Headed Idea Of 2007.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 06

The private equity guys at Cerberus Capital Managerment who bought Chrysler from Daimler think that Six Sigma can bring Chrysler back from the dead but they are dead wrong. Ex-GE,…

Is There A Backlash Brewing Against Online Advertising?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 02

Online ad growth is slowing to about 19% for 2007, down sharply from the 30% plus of the last three years, according to eMarketer. Why? I mean, WHY? This is…

TED’s Africa Conference Videos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 01

TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) held its first conference in Africa this summer. I couldn’t get to it but here are some insightful videos of the people who spoke in Tanzania….

Wildly Funny Viral Videos From Nokia—The Biting Laptop.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 01

In case you haven’t seen these yet (allowing me not be think that I am the very last one to view it), check out these wonderful viral videos from Nokia….

Who Did The Great Nike+ Social Networking Site?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 01

Thanks to Jack Cheng and David Armano for telling me that digital agency R/GA did the great Nike+ site which creates a wonderful experience for the runner population (or not—check…

Do You Dislike Starbucks As Much I Do? This Brand is Eroding My Great Loyalty To It.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

Yet another bad Starbucks experience today. Higher prices. For worse service. It’s one thing to boost your prices if you are delivering a good experience but this isn’t the case…

Ad Agencies Need To Learn From Nike About Social Networking—And Just What Customers Want.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

We’ve been having a great conversation on why most big ad agencies don’t get it when it comes to social networking (the ad people tell their corporate clients to chase…

Are Big Ad Agencies So Clueless That Corporations Should Avoid Them?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26

I’ve been spending much time with ad agencies and focus groups lately and can only conclude that—with some exceptions—they are mostly clueless. Three years ago they had a traditional knowledge…

Was The iPhone Over-Hyped?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 25

News that early sales of iPhone didn’t meet expectations doesn’t come as a surprise to me. I realized over the weekend that I haven’t seen any iPhones anywhere. Now I…

The International Design Excellence Awards Are Amazing.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 20

One of the great things I get to do is announce the winners of the Industrial Designers Society annual design awards and this year they are especially wonderful. Judge for…

Are We Communicating Too Much In This Age Of Social Media?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17

The responses to my late-in-the-day howl at the moon from the authors of The Age Of Conversation are wonderful and invigorating. The truth is that most of the important intellectual…

The Age of Conversation—A New Book (Hardcover, Paper and E-Book) For The World Of Social Media.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 16

A professor I had at the University of Michigan, Robert Putnam, wrote a famous book in 2000 called Bowling Alone: The Collapse And Revival of American Community, in which he…

I Used The Dyson Airblade—And Survived!

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 10

When I was at the Royal College of Art recently, I had occassion to actually use James Dyson’s new 400 mile per hour hand drier. They had one in the…

Beach Reading—Design and Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 09

I took a few days to hit the beach and think about innovation and design after my RCA speech. One of the best things I read was this analysis by…

CEOs Must Be Designers, Not Just Hire Them. Think Steve Jobs And iPhone.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 28

I gave a speech at Innovation Night at the Royal College of Art in London on Tuesday and here it is. It’s my latest thinking on innovation and design. There…

Want Great Talent For Innovation? Try The RCA in London.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 28

I just got back from three days at the Royal College of Art in London—three amazing days. If you are looking for innovation and design talent for your companies or…

Clayton Christensen on the iPhone.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 18

The Harvard Business School professor who wrote the brilliant book, The Innovator’s Dilemma, 10 years ago, Clayton Christensen, doesn’t think the iPhone will be that disruptive an innovation. In a…

Chris Bernard on Why Six Sigma is Just Table Stakes Now—And so is Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 18

This is a great comment from Chris Bernard at designthinking digest on how Six Sigma—and design—are being commoditized so they are now just table-stakes. More is needed—innovation. “When I read…

Facebook Fascination.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 15

Check out Esther Dyson on the important changes at Facebook. I especially like her quote of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg: “The other guys think the purpose of communication is to…

Tom Peters On Six Sigma Vs. Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 14

I just caught up to this great post on Tom Peters’ blog that gives historic context to the debate over efficiency vs. creativity that we started in the last issue…

Facebook Is On Fire, MySpace May Be Fading.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 13

Facebook is hot. You hear it all over the US and Britain. Corporations may love Second Life, but smart people are pouring into Facebook and it apparently is exploding. Marc…

Can The iPhone Replace The Blackberry And Treo?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 11

Across the corporate landscape, folks are asking if they can turn in their Blackberries and Treos for iPhones and they’re not getting a definitive “yes.” Apple kind of says “yes,”…

Microsoft and Starbucks Back Games For Change.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 11

This from Reena Jana, who reports on gaming culture, virtual culture and culture in general for our Innovation & Design site and IN magazine: “Last year, we reported on the…

Ivy Ross On Why Innovation Means Connection, Not Process.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 07

A thanks to Diego Rodriguez at Metacool for pointing out this great interview in Ambidextrous Magazine with Ivy Ross. Here are my favorite quotes: “Let’s face it. Everyone has everything….

Open Source Is Opening The Closed World Of Science And R&D.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 07

I spent a hundred years in grad school and basically live half my life in academic culture, so I know how closed scientific inquiry traditionally is. But new open source…

Six Sigma Fights Back In The Debate Over Efficiency Vs. Creativity.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 06

We’re getting a ton of comment both online and in print on the cover story of the latest Inside Innovation: 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency and Creativity. The black belt…

Comment on Portland Leading Sustainable Growth.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 05

Bob makes good points on my post on Portland. Here they are: “Although I applaud these initiatives (obviously), I think you’re slightly off the mark in linking them to McDonough…

Is Portland Showing Us The Way To Sustainable Economic Growth?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 05

I just got back from a few days in Portland, OR and suggest that our armies of corporate anthropologists skip the malls in Shanghai or Mumbia for a bit and…

How Do People Participate in Social Media? Who Controls The Conversation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 04

As we become a conversation economy shaped by the social networks we belong to, it’s important to really understand how conversations truly work. In the INdata page of the latest…

IN5 Goes Beyond Second Life to Other Virtual Worlds.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 31

While Second Life gets all the hype, a growing number of companies are bypassing it—and some are even leaving—for other virtual worlds that may be better. Reena Jana and Aili…

3M’s Battle Between Efficiency and Creativity—Inside Innovation Issue #5.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 31

You see it again and again: Six Sigma versus Innovation. The latest issue of IN tackles that issue with an indepth look by Brian Hindo at how 3M lost much…

Will Apple’s iPhone do Email?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 30

The iPhone is only a few weeks from being introduced and I was lucky enough to play with it some time ago. It was a dazzling, paradigm-busting product/service/experience. The new…

Delta’s CEO Sends Me A Personal Letter Apologizing For Bad Service—That’s Actually Pretty Good Service.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 30

Back on May 22, I posted about Delta’s failure with me to live up to its new upbeat marketing campaign. On the day Delta emerged from bankruptcy to start anew,…

The First Cyber War Battle—Estonia.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 29

Sometimes an event happens at the far corner of your vision that has huge implications but you’re too busy to really focus on its importance. The recent cyber attack on…

Individual Genius—We Should Never Forgot How Important It Is.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 29

In era of process, where we do nearly all our innovation and design in teams, it is important to remember that genius can still play a critical role in creativity….

Why Are CEOs Bipolar When It Comes To Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 29

The next issue of Inside Innovation—IN5—will go online Wednesday night and the key theme is the tension between efficiency and innovation within corporate culture. To me, this is emerging as…

GE Proves Sustainability Can Drive Innovation And Profits.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 26

GE recently said that it has doubled the sales of its “green” products and services to $12 billion over the past two years. This is a very important number, showing…

Lenovo Bets on Innovation And Wins.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 23

It’s great to see Lenovo’s profits jumping for the most recent fiscal year because it is one of China’s—and the world’s—most innovative companies. Absorbing IBM’s ThinkPad unit proved problematic for…

New Innovation Blog—Check it Out.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 22

We have a new blog on the Innovation & Design site called NEXT—Innovation Tools & Trends. Jessi Hempel and Helen Walters are writing it and it’s really good. There’s a…

Sustainability is The New Driver of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 22

I’ve been talking to the Nike folks lately and learning a lot about viewing sustainability as an energizer of innovation and a growth engine for corporations. This is important because…

Quote of The Day.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 20

“The one-size-fits-all model never fits the individual right. We are now on the verge of the one-size-fits-one world.” — Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired Magazine Anderson was speaking at Patrick…

David Armano Goes To Critical Mass to do Consumer Experience Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 18

One of the best bloggers—and thinkers—I know, David Armano, is moving to Critical Mass, a consumer experience consultancy out of Calgary. David is staying in Chicago and will be VP…

HP Soars—Thanks To The Power Of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 17

HP is on a roll—with great second quarter results. Much of this gain is due to HP’s strategic use of design. Behind the comeback for HP is a name you…

Embracing Risk To Grow—A Must Read For All CEOs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

Diego Rodriguez and Ryan Jacoby have written an insightful piece on risk for one of my favorite magazines, Rotman Magazine, from Roger Martin’s Rotman School of Management, and we are…

Motorola’s New RAZR2

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 16

Motorola has launched a new slew up updated cell phones and boy, are they snazzy. They hit the market in July, a month after the Apple touch-screen iPhone goes on…

Quote of The Day.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 15

“It’s all about managing complexity.” Jeneanne Rae, service innovation consultant, Peer Insight. Her thought being that our lives are so complicated today, with our triple tasking everything, that any company…

Lessons From the Chrysler-Daimler Debacle. Organic Growth Trumps Synergy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 15

It is a verity that few in business believe but most mergers and acquisitions designed to produce “synergy” between two companies fail. It would be better to follow a second…

DaimlerChrysler Lost Nearly $30 billion On Chrysler. So Why Do Global Managers Think It Is Innovative?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 14

Daimler Paid $36 billion to buy Chrysler and appears to have sold it to Cerberus, a huge private equity firm, for $7 billion. That’s a loss of $29 billion. Yet…

Cerberus Should Use Design To Revive Chrysler, Not Just Cut Costs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 14

I have some advice for the private equity firm Cerberus that appears likely to buy Chrysler from DaimlerChrysler—don’t just cut costs, the way you always do and then flip the…

Does Innovation Actually Reduce Risk, Not Increase It?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 11

I was at the Front End Innovation Conference in Boston put on by the PDMA this week and heard some terrific presentations. One quick conclusion from several of them is…

Why Is IBM One of The World’s Most Innovative Companies?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 10

Well, according to the BW/BCG survey of top managers around the world, it is not about servers. It’s about patents, R&D, adaptability, and innovation culture. Check out the first 50…

What Brands Are Successful on Second Life? Those Who Build Community.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 08

Greg Verdino has an interesting post on which brands on Second Life are doing well and why. BigPond, Pontiac, IBM and Showtime have great “dwell” or traffic on Second Life,…

Why Global Managers Think GE Is Innovative.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 08

General Electric moved up two notches in the BW/BCG annual survey of The World’s Most Innovative Companies, jumping to No. 4 in ‘07 from No. 6 in ‘06. GE is…

Does Motorola Really Do Great Design?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 07

Carl Icahn, who is constantly called “the corporate raider turned shareholder activist” is battling Motorola CEO Ed Zander to get a seat on the board of directors and use the…

Why Global Execs Think Microsoft Is Innovative.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 07

Microsoft was No. 5 in the BW/BCG annual survey of The World’s Most Innovative Companies—again. It was fifth in 06 as well. Why? Truth is, nothing irritates most Silicon Valley…

Do You Have “Authority” On Technorati?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 07

Tip of the hat to David Armano over at Logic + Emotion for highlighting the fact that Technorati has changed the way it measures—and describes—links to blogs. David doesn’t think…

Why Apple Is No. 1 In Innovation—The BW/BCG Survey.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 07

Here are the first 50 of the 1032 responses on the survey explaining why top managers believe Apple is the most innovative company in the world. It makes for fascinating…

Broken Promise Fatigue Rather Than Innovation Fatigue.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 07

Over at Ethnography.com, Mark makes an interesting point about “innovation fatigue.” Maybe it has to do with the broken promises of top managers on innovation.Check out what he has to…

Do CEOs Have Innovation Fatigue?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 04

The latest BW/BCG survey of top execs around the world shows that a distinct “innovation fatigue” is setting in. In 2006, 32% of top execs said innovation was the top…

The Shape of Information Is Changing—Microsoft Chases Yahoo And Thomson Is Chasing Reuter’s?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 04

The information landscape is changing very fast. First Murdoch makes a bid for The Wall Street Journal. Now Microsoft appears to be making a bid for Yahoo. And Thomson is…

The Most Innovative Companies in the World—2007.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 03

The annual BW/BCG global survey of The World’s Most Innovative Companies is out and there are some amazing shifts from last year. There are four new companies in the Top…

Deep Dive Into The Data And Connect The Dots of Global Companies.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 02

I’ve been playing with a new site for corporate data that Business Week just put up online Wednesday. There are lots of sites for company data but I haven’t seen…

The “Clown” Theory of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 02

Mark Dawson posted this insightful comment on innovation. He points out that thinking about it in terms of “one-off” innovation (get me another iPod quick!) doesn’t make your company innovative….

Who Is Tired Of Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 02

We are about to come out with our list of The Most Innovative Companies in the world (online this Thursday evening) and it is clear that a split is developing…

Back From Baja To Find Murdoch In Action Again.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 01

Just back from Mexico and the world’s a-hopping. Rubert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal reflects how fast the silos are coming down everywhere, especially media….

Wal-Mart Needs Another Business Model.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 25

Back in November, ‘06, I posted a view that Wal-Mart needed something different if it was to succeed moving forward. There was an avalanche of comment for that post. Now,…

The Truth About Web 2.0.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 25

I received this insightful comment off my post showing that only a tiny percentage of people visiting YouTube and other big social media sites actually create and put up anything….

Most Web 2.0 Users Are Really Just Couch Potatoes.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 22

A study by Bill Tancer, an analyst with Hitwise, which measures Web 2.0 audiences, shows that only a tiny fraction of people using social media actively participate. A miniscule 0.16…

TED Talks—Free Bono, Brilliant, Bezos, Bangle And More Podcasts.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 21

TED’s new website has some extraordinary people podcasting away for free. If you have the time, listen to Janine Benyus on sustainable design concepts from nature….

How Old Is Your Brain?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 21

David Armano’s terrific headline here on his Logic + Emotion blog raises a fascinating question about how young or old you think. As David suggests, it doesn’t correlate simply to…

Earth Day In Times Square, New York.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 20

If you are in New York City on Saturday, get down to Times Square and check out the 185 banners by artists, designers, illustrators and other creative folks to celebrate…

London Is So Far Ahead Of New York—Even In Traffic.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 20

I moderated a panel on urban mobility at the last World Economic Forum in Davos and London Mayor Ken Livingstone was there and asked me “if Mayor Bloomberg can ban…

May Conference on Innovation In Chicago Will Be Important.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 18

Patrick Whitney’s Illinois Institute of Design is putting on one of its terrific conferences on Design Strategy on May 17-18. Hasso Plattner, the cofounder of SAP and the man who…

Virginia Tech—Using Facebook To Deal With Tragedy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 18

This is posted by Jessi Hempel, innovation editor, who will soon have her own blog. Shortly after shots were heard on Virginia Tech’s campus, sophomore Katie Olsen logged onto her…

Thanks Gawker For Setting The Record Straight—How Crowd-Mobbing Controls A Conversation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 17

I’m all for parody so “Business Week Editor, Former Gang Member, Lives in Terror of Roving Packs of Lesbians” had me laughing this morning. This parody of what actually happened…

McKinsey Shows That Business Managers Are Wary Of Blogs And Wikis.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 17

Here’s more information and analysis on why CEOs and top managers fear wikis and blogs. Let me quote from the author of the Mar. 22 McKinsey Global Survey, “How businesses…

Who Controls The Conversation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 15

We have a full-blown conversation going on about the shape and direction of the conversation economy. This may be one of the most important developments of our time, having huge…

We Have To Redesign Our Jury System. We Need Designers To Do It.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 12

We need to train fresh eyes and new design thinking on our jury system. I just spent a second day on jury duty and the process of jury selection—voir dire—doesn’t…

This Year’s The Webby Awards—Go Vote.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 11

There are 60 cateories, 5 or more entrants each for the Webbies and I’m having fun going through all of them. Some sites are boring, some are dumb but so…

Mayor Bloomberg, Design a Better Jury Duty Experience.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 10

I’m on jury duty. It’s an important duty and I do it every time I’m called. Juries provide one of the few opportunities for people from all over the social…

“Climate Pornography.” Comment No. 4.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 09

If you are interested in design, sustainability and business, you must read Thackara’s blog, Doors of Perception. Here’s what he has to say about designing a more sustainable world. John…

Conversation Architecture—It’s The Future.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 09

Check out David Armano’s terrific piece on shaping conversations at the Innovation & Design site. This is one of the most important issues of our day. How do we deal…

Design For The Bottom Of The Pyramid.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 09

Cooper Hewitt in NYC is going to have a great exhibit in May of beautifully ugly products designed to help people in developing countries—things like water pumps and pots and…

Design Journalism Sucks. Are Designers The Enemy of Design—Comment No. 3: Tim Brown/IDEO.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 08

This third comment to the Parson’s speech Are Designers The Enemy of Design by Tim Brown provides a powerful argument to why Design Thinking is perhaps the best hope to…

Are Designers Focussing On Simplicity—Or Do They Love Lots Of Features?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 08

A recent conference called on interface designers to pay more attention to simplicity and ease of use, especially for the growing older population. Here are some quotes: Panelist B.J. Fogg,…

Are Designers The Enemy of Design—Comment No.2.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 07

We’re running through all 50 comments to my Parsons speech—Are Designers The Enemy of Design. Here is No. 2 by Tony Fry, Design Consultant Founder, EcoDesign Foundation Director, Team D/E/S…

Chinese Education Opts For Innovation—US Education Opts For Rote Leaning.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 06

You can’t miss this insightful piece in the New York Times on how the Chinese are trying to transform their education system to teach students how to be more creative…

Are Designers The Enemy Of Design? The Global Conversation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 06

Get set for a real treat—a truly global conversation on the future of design that was triggered by my provocative speech at Parsons—Are Designers The Enemy of Design? 50 folks…

Corporations Like Web 2.0 But Not Blogs. They’re Afraid Of Their Own People.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 03

McKinsey is out with a Global Survey that shows business execs love user-driven collaboration, especially peer-to-peer networking, web services, social networking, podcasts, wikis and RSS feeds. But execs do not…

Snakes In the ….Google’s Office.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 03

For a look at the Python that escaped from Google’s New York office and made the news, check out the official Google blog. They found Kaiser the snake and all…

More On Enemies of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 03

GK VanPatter over at NextD is asking 25 design gurus what they think about the Parson’s speech—Are Designers Enemies of Design? He’ll publish the results in the next issue. So…

America In Decline?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 03

Two factoids that may make a very important trend: 1- Europe has moved ahead of the US in stock market value for the first time since WW 1. Add up…

Poll Results Are In—Are Designers The Enemies of Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 03

Check out David Armano’s poll of what people (designers mostly) thought of my provocative speech at Parsons—Are Designers The Enemy of Design. David’s poll shows 35% of the folks agree,…

Apple, EMI And The Death Of DRM

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 02

Only Steve Jobs could pull off something like this but today was significant in ending restrictions on music sharing (digital rights management restrictions). The deal between Apple and EMI ending…

Who Locked Up Newsweek’s Twitter URL?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 02

David Armano points out that the Twitter URLs for CNBC, MSNBC, Newsweek and Business Week are registered by someone with an email address that goes by “pleasantcreature.” Remember all those…

The Best Products For 2007—Here’s The Design Jury.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 02

It’s rare to have the design genius Richard Sapper (think Thinkpad) jury a contest but he’s joining an amazingly talented group to pick this year’s winners for the Industrial Design…

Starwood Loses Its CEO—Is It’s Innovation At Risk?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 02

Starwood announced that its CEO Steve Heyer is retiring at the request of the board of directors and I’m hoping the dispute is about his management style rather than the…

Is Denmark The World’s Leading Information Technology Power?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 28

Yes, according to the World Economic Forum’s Networked Readiness Index, which measures a country’s ability to exploit information and communication technology to foster innovation and growth. The U.S. slipped from…

No Impact Man Vs. Cradle-to-Cradle Man.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 28

Hair-shirt sustainability Vs. Go-Go Growth Sustainability. We now have two approaches to sustainability—live light on the land and cut back consumption vs. live like the crazy consumer that you are…

Is Innovation Bad For Americans—Especially Engineers and Graphic Designers?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 28

Don’be surprised by the question because outsourcing, free trade and jobs will be a huge issue in the coming election and it all revolves around the question of whether or…

Best Blogs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 27

Marketing/advertising/emerging media maven Joseph Jaffe asked his blog audience to identify their most valuable blogs and NussbaumOnDesign popped up. I don’t know the stats behind the selections of the MVB…

Starbucks Drinks The Efficiency KoolAid—And Suffers From Lack Of Authenticity. Bring Back The Experience.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 27

I’ve been complaining about the long lines and bad consumer experience at Starbucks for a while and the leaked memo by founder Howard Schultz proves that the problems go to…

Zero Is The New Black. Green = Economic Growth

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 27

Thanks to Diego Rodriguez over at Metacool to point out that it is now way cool to have a zero carbon footprint. Diego pointed to Seth Godin’s shoutout of No…

Does The Redesign of Time Magazine Mean It Has A New Business Model As Well?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 25

I’ve been pondering the meaning of Time’s new redesign and can only conclude that a radical new business plan is afoot. The redesign by Pentagram’s Luke Hayman is clean, crisp,…

The New York Times Is Ignorant About Design’s Role in Business.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 25

The New York Times covers architecture, interior design, fashion, even landscaping thoroughly and thoughtfully but when it comes to the power of design in business, it is usually ignorant. Ask…

Innovation Fatigue Is Fatal.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 23

Our issue of The Most Innovative Companies around the world is coming up and Jena McGregor and I are pouring over BCG data about the who and the why. There…

Carbon Free Goes Mass.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 22

Someone who has a major cover story on motion capture technology out tonight on Businessweek online told me her brother is planning a carbon free wedding. Zero carbon footprint. I…

A Drunken Night With Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales In Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 21

There is a lot of important analysis of “conversation” going on today, as social networking and social media evolve to the next level of analysis. John Battelle’s series on The…

Blah Blah Blah—It’s The Conversation As Marketing, Networking, Designing, Creating.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 21

More on this later but check out David Armano’s incredible piece and slide show on how the frame of the “conversation” is changing marketing—and a lot more. You aren’t going…

A “Fab Lab” In Every Home—Are We Returning To A Democratic Age of Craft And Creativity?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 20

Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams who wrote the hot book http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/mar2007/id20070320_687998.htm?chan=innovation_innovation+%2B+design_wikinomicsWikinomics are doing a series of essays for our Innovation & Design site and the latest column is all about…

Phillipe Starck and Roshomon.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 16

Oh my, I’ve talked to and heard from a bunch of folks who were at TED and heard Philippe Starck’s talk and the consensus is that I overstated and misinterpreted…

Philippe Starck And Why There Is A Backlash Against Design And Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 15

I spent Wednesday working on a speech on why designers are the enemy of design for Parsons’ School of Design + Management and came across a bizarre speech given by…

National Magazine Awards Reward Our Partners—And Us.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 14

The finalists for the National Magazine Awards are out and our online partners did well—Meropolis, ID Magazine were nominated. Congrats. We did well two. Business Week online is a finalist…

New Innovation Metric: Return on Attention (ROA).

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 13

Are companies maximizing their ROA—Return on Attention? That’s what John Hagel is asking in an interesting blog post. Do companies actually know which 20% of all their consumers consume 50%,…

The Conversation Economy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 13

I’m spending way too much time with John Battelle’s series on the rise of the Conversation Economy—his next book as it turns out. Part Three discusses how to create a…

Google Vs. The New York Times. IN vs. Portfolio.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 11

When I was editorial page editorial, Business Week threw me a party (for my longetivity) and presented me with a faux magazine cover of me, standing with my arms crossed,…

Whole Foods and the Grameen Bank Joint Venture—Read About It In A New Internet News Service Written By Women—WIP, Women’s Internation Perspective.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 11

A friend, Kate Daniels, has launched a global news service written by women from a woman’s perspective that has information you might want and need. Here’s the release for WIP:…

Are Designers The Enemy Of Good Design?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 09

I’m giving a speech next week at Parsons next week in New York and I’m starting it by saying that designers are the enemy of good design. You designers/innovators know…

Architecture For Humanity Goes Open Source.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 09

An intriguing experiment in open source creativity is under way with the launch yesterday at the TED conference of the Open Architecture Network by the Architecture for Humanity, founded by…

Live From TED…

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 08

Jessi Hempel is at TED and she’s going to be posting for us. Here is her first: Over pomegranate white tea with acai from the Google Cafe, I sat in…

The User Interface of the $100 Computer is Revolutionary.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 07

In case you missed it, one of the best pieces in the latest issue of INside Innovation discusses Sugar, the breakthrough interface on the $100 (OK, $140) One Laptop Per…

Microsoft Vs. Google.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 07

Got back from the desert to see Microsoft blast Google for having a business model that violates copywrite law. Wow, that is heavy—and funny from a company with its own…

INside Innovation—The Splintering Of Mass Social Networks.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 07

I’m back and just read the last issue of IN. It’s great to see a story showing how design thinking can be applied outside the business space in the world…

Time Off.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 27

Blog culture is evolving—it’s personal and you’re in a conversation with smart people you like but then its impersonal and strangers are screaming at you. So I don’t exactly know…

Al Gore’s Carbon Footprint Is Big.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 27

I’ve wanted to write a piece on the carbon footprints of famous people who are for sustainability and against global warming because I’ve noticed that many of them live in…

Innovation In The Theatre.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 27

In case you missed this video, take a close look. Fewer and fewer people under 30 are going to dance and theatre in general. Innovation editor Jessi Hempel (who wrote…

IN—Inside Innovation—Is About To Appear.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 27

The next Inside Innovation is about to appear in the upcoming issue of BusinessWeek and it’s our best yet. If you need to understand the critical balance between risk and…

JetBlue Tries To Win Back Customers. OK.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 21

I got a personal apology from the head of JetBlue today—and it’s a first step toward regaining my business. JetBlue came up with its own Passenger Bill Of Rights—before Congress—that…

Get Monocle, Forget Portfolio.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 21

With the New York/LA media and advertising crowd salivating at the impending April launch of Conde Naste’s new business magazine, Portfolio, a British magazine, Monocle, and its online site have…

The Greatest Innovations Of All Time.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 20

Doblin’s Larry Keeley is one of the most brilliant thinkers on innovation that we’ve got and you must read this piece he did for the Innovation & Design channel on…

Digital Text—How It’s Turning My Media World Inside Out.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 19

Check out this wonderful (thanks to John Battell’s blog) YouTube video by Michael Wesch, an assistant professor of cultural anthropology professor at Kansas State University who really “gets” how digital…

Toyota Shows The Way In Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 18

If you want to read about innovation, check out the NYT’s magazine story on Toyota. It goes deep into the Japanese company’s process to show that it isn’t just about…

New York Vs. Los Angeles.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 18

New York has a smaller carbon footprint than LA. Now I can’t prove that but I betcha it is true. True not only overall but per capita. Why? The subway…

The Backlash Against Innovation—Fad And Function.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 16

I just spent two days with CEOs and designers from Sweden and Finland and they were all amused, if not astonished, at the notion of a backlash against design and…

The Backlash Against Innovation And Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 12

We’ve all been hearing it—“Innovation is over.” “Design is over the top.” “Everyone’s talking innovation so it’s becoming a meaningless term. Kevin McCullah did a piece for Core77 on the…

Apple’s Steve Job’s Wants To Free Music—But His Message Is About Freeing Consumers To Create Their Own Music.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 07

The media this morning is full of Steve Job’s online essay (is this his first personal blog effort?) and it frames his agument in terms of pressuring the music industry…

Smart Does Sustainability.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 06

I ran into Dan Formosa, a founder of Smart Design in New York at the Design in India conference last night and he told me that his design consultancy is…

Kodak Two-Tracks Innovation—The New InkJet Printer May Be Revolutionaray But is it Revolutionary Enough?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 06

Our previous issue of IN had Kodak on it’s cover with the title—Mistakes Made on the Road to Innovation. It was an insightful look at how CEO Antonio Perez was…

Fashion Week Holds Clues to How to Innovate.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 05

Now that you’re tired of watching the Superbowl ads again and again, turn your attention to what’s happening in NYC as Fashion Week unfolds. I’ve always thought that the fashion…

At Davos, The Politicians Got Web 2.0 More Than The Business People.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 02

In all the sessions and workshops that I attended at Davos, I was continually surprised at how little business people understand the revolution in connection and collaboration that is under…

Core77 Innovation Conference In Portland Next Week.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 01

Our terrific partner, Core77, is holding an offsite in Portland, OR next week, Feb. 8 and if you’re in the neighborhood, you should drop by. If you don’t know about…

Kodak Turns Around—You Read It First In IN—Inside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on February 01

Sorry, I’m in the “mo” of getting the next issue of Inside Innovation out and want to crow about our last cover story on Kodak—Mistakes Made on the Road to…

From Experience to Identity—The New Paradigm.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 31

A while back, I posted an item on “identity” as a new paradigm that could replace “experience” in our business culture. Academia, especially linguistics, has been talking about the shift…

Networked and Networking at Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 29

Check out Jeff Jarvis and Arianna Huffington as they do their video thing on Buzzmachine.com, Jeff’s blog, to get a sense of the culture at Davos. They talk about Bill…

Innovation At Davos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 29

Innovation was a huge topic at Davos. Check out the CEO Series because it was perhaps the most important learning event during the entire week….

Davos Does Second Life and YouTube.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 27

There’s this weird disjunction at Davos with enormous attention being paid to Second Life, YouTube and everything that smacks of social networking and innovation yet most of the business people…

Davos Moments.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 26

It gets kind of crazy half-way through the marathon that is Davos. Here are a few things that happened on Day Two as I move into the third day. At…

Davos Moment—Battelle Complains About Lack of Advertising for Blogs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 25

It was a strange Davos moment—a large “media lunch” with bloggers and MainStream Media in one room which included Jeff Jarvis and Arthur Sulzbergers Jr.). The MSM folks were complaining…

Davos Day Two—It’s All About Seeing Around The Corner.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 25

I shuffled through the snow (yep we got some and the Davosians are happy) to attend a workshop in the Future Series called Building The Skills of Tomorrow. Azim Premji,…

Davos—Twelve Power Shifts That Are Changing The World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 24

The most interesting them of the opening day was a series of sessions on key shifts in power that are changing our lives. People went to four sessions of power…

Davos Day One—It’s All About Power Going To The People. But Which People?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 24

OK, the debate at Davos was fast and furious right from the morning start and it was all about the disaggregation of power around the world. Who are the winners,…

Davos Is Hot.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 23

I don’t mean it’s hot with celebrities. I mean it is really warm—no snow. I can see the actual streets for the first time in a decade. In the past,…

Does Apple’s Steve Jobs Know That Cingular Isn’t Global?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 17

Dear Steve, So Verizon doesn’t support cell or email service in Europe—but did you know that Cingular doesn’t support email service in Europe for the TREO? That astounding fact hit…

The World Economic Forum in Davos Will Focus on Shifting Power in a Networked World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 15

I’m heading off to Davos shortly and the big theme of this year’s confab is leading and managing in a world of shifting power. That means shifting power in terms…

Toyota, Home Depot, Motorola, BP, Wal-Mart—Brand Erosion Hits The Biggest And Best Brands. What’s Going On?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 10

There appears to be an epidemic of brand erosion going on, with some of the best and brightest companies with years of doing things right stumbling and hurting themselves in…

Is Wii The New iPod—And More Important Than The iPhone?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on January 09

As all eyes focus on the Apple iPhone announcement, I’m wondering if a larger lesson for innovation can be found in Nintendo’s Wii. Thanks to Diego Rodriguez at Metacool for…

Riffing With Bruce.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 18

If you’re still around (or connected) on Wednesday, I’ll be riffing on innovation and design on the Microsoft/IDSA Designer Spotlight series. You can call Donna at the IDSA—703 707 6000….

The Google Phone vs. The iPhone

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 17

Just when I was ready to slow down the blogging, I came across this in the Guardian—Google and Orange, the big mobile phone company in Europe are talking about launching…

Time Endorses You—Wait For the Massive Mass Innovation To Come in 2007.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 17

I’ve been taking some time away from blogging—and emailing—to recharge but the Time “Man/Person Of The Year” cover for 2006 got me out of my cave. I don’t read Time…

The Wall Street Journal Changes Its Business Model.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 04

Business model innovation is perhaps the hardest kind of change to envision and implement and Dow Jones will give it a go by attempting a radical shift in the venerable…

Catalyst Awards And ROI: The Innovation Equation, Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on December 01

This week I’ll be handing out Catalyst awards to the best-selling, best designed products of 2006, juried by the IDSA, at the ROI conference in NYC. There’s still some room…

Is The Wal-Mart Model Dead?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 30

Wal-Mart may be facing a crisis in its business model as its low-price strategy appears to hit a wall, with the company posting the smallest December sales gain since 2000….

Is Nintendo’s Wii Better Than Sony’s PlayStation 3? Ask Tom Cruise in the Movie Minority Report.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 29

I’ve been reading the tons of reviews of the Wii and the PS3 and the one thing missing in the flood of comparisons is the idea that Nintendo may actually…

Best of 2006.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 28

Check out David Armano’s blog Logic + Emotion where he asks: “What was the most significant event/aspect of 2006 in regards to marketing, advertising or user experience?” The comments posted…

Yahoo and the Newspapers—In Search of Business Model Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 21

The cover story on Kodak—Mistakes Made on the Road to Innovation—in the current issue of Inside Innovation, highlights the rush to change business models throughout industries. Nowhere is this most…

Gurupalooza 2—The Rotman Innovation Conference Rocked.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 20

Larry Keeley of the Doblin Group coined the term “Gurupalooza” to describe the first gathering at a Toronoto conference of the “7 gurus” of innovation described in my cover on…

IN— Inside Innovation—Is Out This Week. Good Timing.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 15

The timing for the next issue of Inside Innovation, which comes out online Thursday night and in Business Week, the magazine, on Friday, could not be better. The Council on…

A Great Acumen Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 14

At the five-year anniversary of the Acumen Fund, I listened to Fareed Zakaria deliver one of the most insightful keynote speeches I’ve ever heard. Points: 1- Globalization is raising the…

Acumen—Designing Better Solutions For Bottom of The Pyramid Problems of Poverty.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 10

Next week, Acumen Fund one of the most innovative philanthropies I know, will celebrate its fifth anniversay and the Innovation & Design channel has a rather remarkable story on it….

How To Improve Your Innovation Success Rates—Don’t Miss This Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 09

The Rotman School of Management is putting on a one-day conference in New York next Thursday—November 16—that is one of the most important innovation events of the Fall. I don’t…

Designing a Better Voting System—Please.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 07

I just voted in New York City. There were three people at the desk by the door as I entered, looking up addresses and voting districts. Then another four people…

A Book For Going Green—A User’s Guide to the 21st Century.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 05

If you’re looking for help in designing for sustainability—designing an economy, a society or a planet, check out this book from Worldchanging.com. At 600 pages, it is full of innovation…

Redesigning Media—Gannett Goes First.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 05

Gannett is using design thinking to innovate its entire business model. It has spent months gettting closer to its newspaper reading customers and has now decided to involve them much…

Beyond MySpace and Facebook—Pragmatic, Not Just Social, Networking.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 05

There is a great piece on PSFK on the latest iteration of social networking—going beyond the fun “social” gathering to a more pragmatic networking effort that may be more socially…

Designing a Better Electoral System—We Need Service Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 05

Tuesday is the big day in America—elections— and I wish we were applying design thinking to the electoral process as much as we are applying it to the business process….

Core77 Conference on Web 2.0 in Boston.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 03

Our good partner Core77 is giving a conference on Nov. 15 in Boston that has some amazing people, starting with John Maeda, from the MIT Media Lab. If you haven’t…

Productivity Numbers Are Bad—Are We Spending Too Much On R&D And Not Enough On Innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 02

The latest batch of numbers on productivity growth are awful and this bodes ill for the future if they continue. I know the conventional wisdom is that private spending for…

Dove Does Self-Esteem.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on November 01

Check out this video on the dove site. It gets to the heart of America’s “beauty problem.”…

TED Prize Winners.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 31

Check out the TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) winners just announced. You get $100,000 not for what you already did but for what you are going to do in the future—nice…

Second Life As A 3-D Web Browser?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 31

We’ve been working on a Second Life story for IN3 but put a portion of it up online today because the demographics are different for the two platforms and, well,…

Second Life, MySpace, YouTube—It’s All About Mining Intentionality.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 26

We’re rushing to complete IN3—the third issue of Inside Innovation and there are fascinating stories in it, including one on Second Life. The more I see in Second Life, the…

PopTech is Popping.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 20

Andrew Zolli is one of my favorite “futurologists” who has a real sense of the possible and his conference —PopTech— is going on right now in Maine The theme? Dangerous…

Grameen Bank Wins Nobel For Innovating Ways To Finance Bottom of the Pyramid Entrepreneuers.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

Sorry I missed this very important event—the giving of the Nobel Peace Prize to Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank for his pioneering work in micro-credit. When I was in the…

Ads Shifting Away From Yahoo to Second Life?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 18

The demassing of the advertising space continues with more and more companies looking to the virtual world of Second Life to sell their stuff—and more media outfits like Reuters, Wired,…

Reuters in Second Life—I’m Jealous.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 16

Hey, if you’re not SL, you’re not real. At least these days. Reuter’s just announced that it is opening a bureau in Second Life to do some virtual reporting on…

National Design Week Begins Today, Supported By Target.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 16

The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is celebrating National Design Week from October 15 to 21 in New York City to promote design education on a national scale. Target is providing…

Apple Goes Red With A Red iPod Nano For Bono.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 15

It’s beautiful, it’s thin and $10 from each red iPod Nano sale ($199) will go to fight Aids in Africa. Apple is now joining a whole host of companies in…

The Law of Thirds.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 13

I’ve been gathering data on how innovation really happens in big corporations (yes, like a lot of other people) and now believe that a law of thirds applies. Maybe even…

Case Studies in the Value of Design for Business.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

One of the quiet secrets about the the spread of design culture into business culture is the role that a alliance between the Industrial Designers Society of America and Business…

Don Norman—Champion of Design And The User Experience—Wins A Great Award.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

Forget the Nobels, the 2006 Benjamin Franklin Medal in Computer and Cognitive Science was just awarded to a hero of mine, Don Norman, for his work in user-centered design. This…

Google + YouTube = GoogTube. OK, But Will I Need To TiVo My GoogTube Now?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 09

So Google buys YouTube for $1.65 billion, which is probably a decent price to pay for a fantastic social networking site based on video sharing but I have to ask…

YouTube and P&G—CEO Lafley Say’s “Let Go” of Brands—Consumers Are In Control Now.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 08

Wow. I just came across this speech by design leader P&G CEO AG Lafley and it’s dynamite because he tells an Association of National Advertisers audience to face reality and…

Designing Mozilla—The Stanford D-school Class.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 08

I’ve been getting lots of backstory data on the class at Stanford that produced a successful business model for Mozilla, the internet browser company that we featured in our story…

Carnegie Mellon Has A New Innovation Degree—And a Hot Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 06

CMU has E&TIM. Let me translate. Carnegie Mellon University will offer, starting Jan. 07, a one-year interdisciplinary master of science degree in Engineering and Technology Innovation Management that will be…

Tech In Asia—A New Blog.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

I’m fairly eclectic in using sources and naming them, including the competition, but I’m a little nervous in pointing to great content coming out of my own BW brand. However,…

Innovation Conference That’s Smart.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 04

I wish I could be in Rhode Island this week because Richard Saul Wurman and Walt Mossberg are hosting a fascinating conference where innovators and people who cover innovation are…

Motorola Gets Tattoos.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

I was at a global brands conference this week along with George Neill, corporate vp of global marketing and he showed me the new tattooed cell phones Motorola is selling….

Fake Innovation Fails For WalMart.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

Check out this post on Techdirt, a blog I often check—its about WalMart’s attempt to create a faux social networking site and falling on its face. “Wal-Mart’s MySpace Clone Gone,…

The Laws of Simplicity.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 03

John Maeda’s new book, The Laws of Simplicity, is simply terrific. It’s exactly 100 pages, the illustrations are brilliant and the 10 Laws of Simplicity (plus Three Keys) are a…

Why The World Economic Forum Is Wrong About US Competitiveness.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 27

The US has dropped from first to sixth place in global competitiveness according to the latest survey from the WEF, because it runs huge budget and current account deficits which…

Bank of America and Xerox Win Outstanding Corporate Innovators Award.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 25

The Product Development & Management Association is a serious outfit that helps managers understand the nitty gritty of innovation and it is about to give its Outstanding Corporate Innovator Award…

Salaries for Designers Rising.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 25

The demand for design professionals on most levels is pretty hot so it is good to see Coroflot doing it’s latest salary survey—and history of salary changes over the past…

Parties as Innovation Labs and Social Networking Arenas.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 24

Austin, Texas is a party town—a college town that specializes in good music and drinking—and I know that because the recent IDSA annual conference was held in Austin. I’ve been…

Design And Innovation Are Sizzling—Companies Are Hiring Like Crazy.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 20

I’m in Austin, TX at the last day of the IDSA annual conference and one thing is very clear—companies are hiring a hoard of designers and there is a shortage…

The Hunt For Innovative Talent—The D-Schools.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 17

IN2 is out on the stands, with stories on Jonnie Ive at Apple and how he does the craft of design, how ZIBA Design does incredible consumer research in China,…

IDSA Annual Awards Given Next Week.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 13

I just poked my head up after closing issue #2 of Inside Innovation to realize that the annual Industrial Designers Society of America conference where all those gold winners get…

Apple, Wal-Mart and Destructive Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 13

It’s remarkable to see Apple struggle to offer movies via iTunes— a new business model—and have Wal-Mart fight back to retain its sales of DVDs—an old business model. Movie-making studios,…

The Year We Tipped Green—Thank You Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on September 01

We’re pretty busy trying to enjoy this last weekend of the summer and preparing for the Fall and schools and jobs but we should take a moment to realize that…

YouTube Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 30

Stop what you are doing and check this out on YouTube. You find creativity and innovation in the most unlikely places. And fun. OK. Who are these guys? Are they…

Here Comes IN2—Issue #2 of Inside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 30

We’re in the zone, in the flow, in the last part of the race where you are in that special place of pure joy of creativity that Mihaly Csikszentimihalyi talks…

Indigenous Indian Innovation—What Native Americans Can Teach Us.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 23

I’d like to make a bet that sometime in the next five years, indigenous indian innovation will become hot in fashion, food, contemporary art, and, most important, business culture. Just…

For Innovation, Forget Milan And Go To Sante Fe”s Indian Market.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 22

I’ve just returned from an innovation conference that was among the best I’ve ever attended—the annual Indian Market in Sante Fe. I’ll talk more about it later, but I want…

Terrorism Is Changing The Dynamic of Air Travel. Take The Halo, Not the Plane.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 14

For business travelers, the new dynamic of travel, especially to Britain and probably around the world in general, is making that travel increasingly problematic. An innovation gap has opened up…

Iran’s President Starts His Own Blog But Iranian Bloggers Are Being Detained.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 14

I read Aljazeera.com to see the world through the narrative of the victimized, aggrieved Middle East (that’s the historic and cultural story of so many in that region) and this…

Nissan Design Get Tax Credits In The UK.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 11

Nissan is being able to claim tax credits for its investments in design in Britain. This could prove very important for Europe—and possibly the US. The Cox report suggested using…

Happy Birthday IBM PC—25 Years Old.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 11

Hmmm. On August 12, 1981, IBM launched the IBM 5150. It cost $1,565.00 and had 16k of memory. Think of that. For that price today, you can buy a computer…

Columbia Journalism School Needs Lessons In Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 11

People like to learn from mistakes—preferably made by others—so the extraordinary mistake just made by the prestigious Columbia Journalism School in cutting its fast-growing online operation CJRDaily.com to try and…

Al Queda in Heathrow, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Bombers in Mubai, Terrorists in Iraq—There is a Need For Greater Innovation In Military Defense.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 10

News out of London of yet another serious Al Queda attempt to kill thousands of people by blowing them up in airplanes, more rocket attacks on Israel and battles in…

Second Life’s Virtual World Attracts W Hotels, American Apparel and Other Corporations.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 07

Back in June, the amazingly capable Reena Jana who writes and edits for the Innovation & Design channel, did a terrific story on how American Apparel was using Second Life…

Bono Buys Into Forbes, Launches Product Red in US and Expands His Brand.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 07

U2 singer Bono, aka Paul David Hewson, is on a fascinating capitalist roll, buying into Forbes.com and Forbes magazine through an entertainment private equity fund called Elevation Partners . At…

Starbucks And Jet Blue—You Are Losing Me.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 04

Starbucks stock price isn’t doing too well, and neither is JetBlue’s, while other cX companies (companies that give good consumer experience) have strong earnings and strength in the stock market….

Innovation Pays Off—P&G Gets Great Earnings.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 02

Evidence is piling up that innovation/design/creativity pay off on the bottom line and Procter & Gamble’s latest earnings are but the latest proof. Let me quote CBS MarketWatch on this:…

Kodak Struggles With Innovating Its Business Model.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on August 01

Of all the forms of innovation out there, surely business model innovation is the most difficult and Kodak’s travails show why. The old fllm maker has been trying to make…

Lebanon, Israel And The Role Design Thinking Can Have In Solving Social Problems.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 31

The tragedy that unfolds periodically and without fail in the Middle East is on display once again. We know the history. We know the facts. We know the emotions—fear, anger,…

Innovation, Design, Consumer Experience—Call it a Banana But do it Because The Stock Market Will Reward You.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 27

Dan Pink has a great column on Yahoo showing that companies using design to improve their customers’ experience have higher stock prices than those that don’t. This is precisely what…

Innovation and Work—Do They Mix?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 26

“I have too much work to go to work.” Now, think about that sentence for a moment. I sent this to my boss recently—and he understood instantly. I now find…

IBM”s India Gambit Pays Off. Europe Loses Out.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 19

IBM reported second quarter profits up 11% and said it was due in large degree to shifting the cost of what I call “information labor” from Europe to India. This…

Chinese Gamers on YouTube.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 18

Stop whatever you are doing and check this out on YouTube. Chinese Gold Farmers Preview—it’s the new world and its amazing….

India Censors The Internet.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17

The first case of India censoring the internet has occurred. Without making excuses for this, as we are all discovering, bombings on subways (Mumbai just days ago), rockets on cities…

Backlash Against Crowdsourcing, Co-Authoring and the rise of Participatory Production.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17

As customers become producers and take more and more control of the design of their products and services, the revolution (and make no mistake, it is a serious change in…

Philips and Participatory Design—or Co-Authoring.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17

Philips Design does some of the most amazing work in innovation and design. Because of its weird business model, much of the really great stuff from Philips never shows up…

Beyond Ethnography—Participation, Crowdsourcing, Identity, Customer-ization.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 17

The desire, demand and ability of people to co-create their own products and services is reshaping our business culture fast. If you’re a manager still trying to figure out how…

Dell Does Design—And Gets Beat Up.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 11

Dell’s director of industrial design, Ken Musgrave, gave me (and probably 1,000 other people in the innovation/design media) a show-and-tell recently, offering up new design directions for Dell computers. It…

The Devil Wears Prada And The Role of Mercurial, Nasty Creative Bosses.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06

The fashion industry and its symbiotic cousin, the fashion industry media, are notorious for their impossible, bad-tempered, cruel, insulting, arrogant bosses. Whether they are running fashion houses or fashion magazines,…

Success Through Failure—The Essence of the art of Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06

If you haven’t read the remarkable cover by Jena McGregor in BW called “Eureka, We Failed! How Smart Companies Learn From Their Flops,” get to it now. It’s all about…

San Francisco’s Airport Needs Better Signs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on July 06

The San Francisco Airport needs better signage. Yes, I love SFO because it brings me to SF. But it does seem to take forever to move from the rental car…

Modernista Wins The General Motors’ Cadillac Account.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 28

Modernista!, our partner and designer of IN—Inside Innovation—just picked up most of General Motors Cadillac account, ending the 20 year reign of ad agency Leo Burnett, part of the Publicis…

The Quality Movement Vs. The Innovation Movement.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 28

I talked with Gary Hamel the other day. He did a book, as I recall, with CK Prahalad years ago that developed the concept of “core competence” and he’s worked…

Bill Gates, Warren Buffet and Innovation in the Non-Profit Sector.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 27

Lots of folks don’t see either Bill Gates or Warren Buffet as innovators. Buffet often says he doesn’t “get” technology and doesn’t invest in it. Much of his company’s money…

Social Networking, Advertising and Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 22

Anyone interested in the broader issue of innovation should take a look at some of the other BW blogs that have different monikers, such as Blogspotting and The Tech Beat….

Is Brainstorming For Real? You Bet.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 21

Last week the Wall Street Journal ran a piece deriding brainstorming and suggesting that individuals alone can come up with more and better ideas than a group sitting in a…

Was Bill Gates an Innovator?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 17

Jeff Jarvis over at BuzzMachine has interesting insights into the legacy of Bill Gates and what he did at Microsoft. Jarvis is far more critical of him as an “innovator”…

Bill Gates, Microsoft and Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 16

Many people were surprised when Microsoft came up # 5 on our list of Most Innovative Companies back in April (it was my one and only effort at designing a…

Yahoo Wiki’s Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 15

A tip of the hat to the Innovation Insider for showing me this interesting development at Yahoo which is basically a wiki on innovation. Looks like people are asking some…

More Feedback On INside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 15

Here are some very interesting thoughts from comments on our I&D site. Nickname: Brianxl Review: How about the fact that 17 of the 25 are women? What does that say,…

Readers’ Feedback On IN—Inside Innovation

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 13

Thanks to all the readers who are sending in truly valuable feedback on issue #1 of Inside Innovation. It will inform and shape issue # 2 that comes out in…

The IN 25—The Top Innovation Champions in the Corporate World.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 09

OK, check out our choices for top innovation champions. Who did we miss?…

Design 2.0 and Designing for the Ecosystem.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 09

Innovation & Design’s very own Jessie Scanlon moderated a really thoughtful panel at Core77’s San Francisco conference last week while I was chasing birds in Costa Ricas. Check it out…

Thank You MIchael Bierut and Pentagram.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on June 08

So I get back at 1AM last night from six great days in Costa Rica birding (saw 255 species and about 20 “life birds” that I’ve never seen before, including…

Claudia Kotchka’s Blogs.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 30

P&G’s super innovation driver Claudia Kotchka has been a huge help in shaping our new magazine IN-Inside Innovation. She advised us on how to fill the white space and show…

INside Innovation—Down to the Wire.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 26

We’re hours away from pushing the button (or whatever production does) and sending the premier issue of IN—Inside Innovation to the printers. And guess what? We’re still debating the cover…

The Commoditization of Celebrity.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 24

At last week’s Design Strategy conference put on by Patrick Whitney’s IIT Institute of Design, I had an epiphany (after listening to the great presentations by Motorola’s Jim Wickes and…

Launching INside Innovation—Getting Close to The End.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 24

My hands hurt from so much editing and writing, my family barely remembers me and lots of people are angry at me—secretaries for taking over their office for the Innovation…

Design Week in NYC—ICFF, New Apple Store And New Innovation Magazine—INside Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 21

It’s all happening at once this week and in a weird way, all these design threads are coming together. So after working on the insightful column by Google’s Marissa Mayer…

YouTube Marketing.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 19

Check out this fascinating imagery from YouTube. It could be the future of marketing (or just a lot of plain fun). YouTube is terrific….

Hot Insights From The Institute of Design Conference.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 18

I had to cut short my Patrick Whitney ID conference to get back to work on the launch of INside Innovation but I certainly got a huge amount of new…

Backstory: How We Designed The New INside Innovation Magazine.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 15

INside Innovation is coming out soon. It will be a quarterly at first, stitched inside Business Week with issue #1 hitting the stands on June 9, with two more issues…

Big Core77 Design Conference in San Francisco Coming Up.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 15

Our very own Jessie Scanlon, curator of the Innovation & Design channel, will be leading a panel at the upcoming Core77 Design 2.0 conference in San Francisco on June 6….

Social Networking and Identity.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 12

Jessi Hempel is joining Jessie Scanlon (who had an amazing panel with GE Healthcare’s new Global Design chief Lew Lenzi — ex Thompson—and Sam Farber of OXO and Copco fame…

Are You Sick of The Notion of “Experience? What Comes Next? Try The Notion of “Identity.”

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 10

I know this brilliant socio-linguist who’s a professor at Columbia University and she had this incredibly paradigm-shifting insight yesterday. She said “you’re always talking about experience, the consumer experience, as…

A New Ranking on Global Design From Helsinki—Where They Know Design.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 09

Check out this new report from Finland: “New Designium Publication: Global Design Watch A new report by Designium looks at the design policies of countries selected for the study. The…

A Really Great Blog For Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on May 02

Check out Mark Vanderbeeken’s redesigned blog putting people first. It focuses on consumer experiences but has a lot more interesting stuff on innovation. The redesign is beautifully done. Clear information…

Is Philips The Absolute Best Design Company in The World?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 28

I don’t know the answer, of course, but I go to a lot of events and see a lot of fascinating things and on Monday night I went to The…

Is Microsoft Really Innovative? Lots of Global Senior Managers Think So.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 19

OK, I a, getting getting lots of messages offline about Microsoft being # 5 on the BusinessWeek/BCG Most Innovative Companies list. What’s up with that, they’re saying. Not too many…

Google Vs. Apple in Innovation.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on April 14

Check out the Industry Rankings of the Business Week cover story on The World’s Most Innovative Companies for an interesting surprise: Google outpolls Apple for top rank, 27 to 24….

American Inventor

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 17

So I watched American Inventor last night and the beginning was so bad I actually switched over to the awful movie Gigli with Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck. The first…

The American Inventor Show—Is It Cheesy?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on March 15

The ABC show, American Inventor, brought to us by the folks who gave us Idol, airs on Thursday and the gossip within the design and innovation crowd is that it…

Is Song Like Saturn and Delta Like GM?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 30

Seth Godin talks about the failure of Song in terms of Delta not living up to the reality of copying JetBlue. As Diego Rodriguez notes, Goldin says it was all…

R&D spending doesn’t always pay off—Booze Allen.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 11

A new survey out by business consultant Booze Allen Hamilton says that big companies that spend more on research and development than their peers don’t necessarily get a higher payoff…

Are CEOs naive about innovation?

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 07

A recent BCG survey shows a disquieting gap between CEOs and their top managers over the criticial issue of innovation. The full report, industry by industry, will be available on…

The commoditization of knowledge spreads.

Posted by: Bruce Nussbaum on October 05

The commoditization of knowledge has been a great surprise to many who thought knowledge would forever be a competitive advantage to the U.S., Europe and Japan. Not so, as knowledge…